Ekou's Song
by DancingKirby
Summary: Now Complete. Ekou reminisces about how her formative years turned her into the person she is now. But be warned, her story is not for the faint of heart. AmonxEkou in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Well, here it is, the thing I've been hinting at in my profile for over a week now.

I thought it was high time someone wrote a fic about Ekou, and I wanted to be the first one to do so. She's so mysterious-it's a wonder no one else seems to be as fascinated by her as me.

I'm trying to make these chapters as long and detailed as I possibly can, and I've hit my fair share of snags along the way. I ultimately decided this would be best as a chapter fic, probably with less than five chapters.

Some parts of this chapter use dialogue from Episode 117. Credit for the translations goes to the Janime episode summaries. I did change the wording of the translation slightly so it would "flow" more.

Disclaimer: I don't own GX; I just like filling in the (admittedly quite large) blanks.

Do you know me?

When I say "know me," I mean _really_ know me. People might have seen my picture in the magazines, or caught a glimpse of me playing on the vast amount of land that's on my parents' property.

Those people_ think_ they know me. They think only what those glimpses tell them, and nothing more...that I was always a proper lady without a unique thought in my head.

If that's what you believe...then you don't know me as well as you thought. You may know my parents, you may know my brother, and maybe even Amon. Nevertheless, there is no way you could know me. Sorry and all that.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure that anyone knows me. Not even my parents. You see, they had my life all planned out for me. I was to be the perfect daughter, who dresses impeccably, smiles vacantly, and pours tea without ever spilling a single drop. Then, as soon as I was old enough, I would get married to whoever my parents chose, and I would never even dream of being unhappy with the choice. As soon as I was married, I'd get busy with my main purpose in life...having children. Ideally, I'd have about ten of them, and they would all be boys.

Yes, that was what my parents_ wanted_ to happen with my life. What actually happened was quite different.

I was the girl that no one wanted. Rich families never want daughters without producing an heir first-it makes them uneasy. They need boys who can inherit the family business and carry on the surname. Why do you think that King Henry VIII had six wives? He got sick of them all because none of them could give him a son!

Thankfully, my father never went so far as to behead my mother. Actually, they got along quite well, and continue to do so today.

Then again, my mother is a perfect example of a proper lady, so it's almost impossible to tell if she actually is happy. She does whatever my father says, never raises her voice, and always has this serene expression on her face.

Maybe there is more to Mother than what meets the eye, though. I remember when I was little, she used to sneak away from my father's constant array of dinner parties, and go upstairs to my nursery to play silly, pointless baby games with me. If Father ever found out, he would have been furious that his wife was shirking her hostess duties. Thankfully, I don't think he found out.

Father never played with me, as far as I know. When I was very young, and Father was still optimistic that Mother would produce an heir any day, he was nice enough to me. However, by the time I was old enough to start forming long-term memories, he showed a coldness towards me that wouldn't abate for years. Therefore, I really don't remember the days when he might have smiled at me, or watched me toddle around on the front lawn. Sometimes I wish I _could_ remember it. It might have made things slightly easier in the long run.

Who knows...maybe he did love me in his own way, but was never comfortable at showing it. One can only speculate.

One thing's for sure though...my parents knew what they were thinking when they named me. Apparently, they were into giving all of their children sort of "new-age" names. Thus, I became Ekou.

No one ever explicitly said why my parents chose that name, but it wasn't all that difficult for me to figure out. You see, that was all I was-an echo. I was just a faint reflection of the son they wanted me to be. A lonely echo; one that would eventually just fade into the atmosphere of polite society.

By the time I was school-aged, the situation was getting desperate. My mother had yet to produce a male child. What was more, Mother was in her thirties, and not getting any younger. Time would soon run out.

Mother and Father were pulling out all the stops. They visited all the world's best doctors, and tried any new procedures might help. Hormone therapy, endless rounds of in vitro fertilization, you name it. If the technology existed, they gave it a try. It didn't matter (to Father, at least) how much it cost, or if it had been proven to work, or even what side effects it might have on Mother's own body.

Nevertheless, despite all their best efforts, and all the money and time spent, none of it seemed to work.

Of course, I knew none of this at the time. When my father passed me in the hallways, or looked at me at the dinner table, there would always be a half-angry, half-bored look on his face. I was still a child, and did not understand what I could have done to make Father so angry. Now I know that I was angering him just by existing.

You might think that, lacking a son, my father might start grooming _me_ to take over the Garam fortune someday. If that is the case, you have obviously not been paying attention to what I have been saying all this time.

As soon as my motor skills were sufficiently developed, I was made to start sewing lessons. I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours of my childhood were wasted on embroidery of throw pillows. I was also expected to become an accomplished piano player, artist, and socialite. My parents even appointed what could be called a governess to teach me all these things. I hadn't even thought that governesses existed outside of the Victorian-era romance novels of which I was so fond.

When I did have free time, I couldn't spend it on what I liked doing best. Most of the time, I was expected to quietly play with my dolls. What I really wanted to do was run around outside and play baseball, but my parents would have none of that.

Thankfully, I was allowed to go riding on my pony occasionally. Yes, I had a pony; the one thing that every little girl wants. But I would have traded my pony any day for the loving families that all those other girls had.

Still, when I rode my horse, it was the only time I truly felt free. When I rode my pony up and down the pathways that wound around the perfectly manicured lawns and hedges, it was the only time when I thought that, just MAYBE, I didn't have to live the life my parents wanted me to live.

I was nine the morning my parents went on their mysterious car trip.

They didn't see me as they were getting ready. I was sitting quietly in the sunroom, my face bent over the lace doily that was my sewing lesson for the next several days. I remember hoping desperately that I would be allowed to go outside before the summer heat got unbearable.

Suddenly, my father swung the door wide open. The noise startled me so much that I would have pricked my finger had I not been wearing a thimble. Father was too busy talking to his personal servant to register my small yelp of surprise.

"I don't care how long we have to drive; we have to find one!" he was shouting.

The servant protested that it was in the middle of a heat wave; the car might overheat and break down if it drove around in the desert too long. But Father would have none of that.

"Even if the car explodes into a million pieces, we are not, I repeat NOT, leaving until we find someone! You hear me?" he bellowed.

The servant evidently decided that it was no use arguing anymore, and walked outside to get the Mercedes ready.

Mother went outside shortly after Father did. She was wearing a large hat to keep the sun out of her eyes. Unlike Father, she gave me a brief glimpse. The expression on her face was unfathomable, in no small part due to that hat.

Then, she quickly walked outside to join Father in whatever journey they were taking.

The rest of my morning was spent toiling over that infernal doily. I was so bored, I was counting the minutes until lunch. It wouldn't be exactly the most exciting event ever, but at least it would be some sort of distraction.

Little did I know that I would end up getting more than enough excitement for the day. I was in the middle of eating my rather dull crustless sandwiches when one of my maids burst into the dining room.

"Hurry up and finish eating!" she said breathlessly, "Your parents want you outside and dressed in nice clothes in ten minutes!"

I said nothing in response. How could I?-my mouth was full. Just because my parents weren't here didn't mean I would get away with bad manners, after all.

So I finished eating as quickly as was politely possible, then I went up to my room to change my clothes. The outfit that the maid had picked out for me was made of dark wool, and it seemed like something one might wear to a stuffy British boarding school. It was not at all comfortable to wear in such nasty heat.

I stood outside waiting for several minutes, sweat forming on my forehead as I wondered just what all was going on today.

Finally, I saw the Mercedes pull up. Father got out, and he was talking to someone. I couldn't see just who it was. Unlike Mother, I did not have a hat, and the sun was getting directly into my eyes.

"So this is the main house right here. Do you find it to your liking, boy?" Father was asking this mystery person. He sounded for all the world like some sort of pompous tour guide.

I had assumed that Father was talking to the son of some business partner of his. Therefore, I was quite taken aback when I heard the person's reply.

"So this is my...?" the voice asked hesitantly.

If I had said something like that, I would have been snapped at for stammering. However, my father just gave an indulgent half-smile to this newcomer.

My curiosity overwhelmed me. I walked over and voiced my surprise that my parents had come back so soon.

At first, Father looked angry at the interruption. But after a few seconds of thinking, he had obviously come up with a way that he could use me to his advantage.

He made a vague gesture towards me, and said, "This girl here will help you get acquainted with your new surroundings. Her name is...Ekou." He evidently even had a hard time remembering my name!

Wait, what? Did my parents adopt this person? I tried not to show my true emotion, which was confusion. Mother and Father had never even mentioned to me that they might try adoption.

Father put a hand on the shoulder of this mystery person and propelled him forward, so that I could finally get a better view of him.

Just as I had suspected, this boy was about my age. He was also almost exactly my height, and had red hair and glasses. But honestly, I wouldn't have cared had he possessed scaly green skin and a tail. Here was someone who I might be able to identify with; who might even understand me for who I was! I was still slightly disoriented at this turn of events, but I decided that this might not be so bad after all.

I took his hand, and tried my best to be as welcoming and kind as I possibly could.

Before we left, the boy turned back to my parents and politely thanked them for all they had given him. Even then, his manners were impeccable.

The boy's old identity was of no importance to Father. He was told to forget anything from his old life. From now on, he was going to be a Garam. However, it wasn't like he had had much of a life in the first place. My father had been so desperate for a male heir that he had literally plucked a homeless boy right off the streets.

Father also continued his affinity for unorthodox names when he renamed this boy. I'm quite sure that there are not many people running around that are named "Amon", after all.

My father also made it so Amon and I were never out of each other's company. We took our meals together, shared a tutor, and spent our free time doing the same activities. Or rather, Amon participated in the activities while I watched from the sidelines. Of course, I was not allowed to do _boy_ stuff. However, I enjoyed simply watching well enough. I got such a thrill from the ease with which Amon defeated all of his older opponents in the boxing ring. I was too young back then to get weak in the knees just from seeing his muscles, though. That would come later...but I will get to that part in its own time.

It was difficult having this new person in my life at first. Amon has never been a particularly talkative person, and he was even less so when we didn't know each other well. It was initially tough for me to even get him to reply to my small talk. But I kept trying. I was always so sweet and polite to him; always properly submissive and gentle. Later, I would find out that the servants used to whisper about how it almost seemed as if Ekou had a crush on her new adopted brother.

Had Father not chosen me to be responsible for Amon's mental well-being, would things have been different? Should I have stood up for myself instead of meekly accepting my new role as a quasi-servant? Of course, back then I would have never even dreamed of defying an order from my father. Nevertheless, one must wonder if all the mistakes I made later could have been prevented by simply questioning what Father expected of me.

Not that I regret how close Amon and I were. It would practically be treason for me to think otherwise! One day soon, Amon will rule the whole world, and I will help him do so. Our planet is so full of corrupt leaders that it makes me sick. Even my own father is no different from all the rest. But Amon is not like that! He will be the best king in all of history! It's my sworn duty to make sure no one stands in the way of this goal.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not), Amon's arrival didn't have much of a change on how my parents acted toward me. If anything, they ignored me even MORE. It didn't matter that they had known me for nine years longer than they had known Amon, or that I was their only biological child. I was the wrong gender, so now that they had an heir, there was no reason to pay attention to me.

Remember how I said that I was always with Amon when he was practicing boxing and baseball and other such things? Well, more often than not, Mother and Father were watching him too. Amon would constantly be looking at them to see if they approved. If they didn't, he was very disappointed. But mostly, they did approve. I _always _approved and cheered him on, no matter how poorly he happened to do. But Amon just seemed to take my presence for granted.

I never thought about this much, though. I was just happy that I had such a talented brother; someone I could look up to. And it wasn't like he ignored me all the time like my parents did. When it was just the two of us alone, Amon let his guard down somewhat. He may have lived for pleasing Mother and Father, but I was the one he trusted.

Amon usually carried himself about with such icy decorum, but I knew he occasionally had a lighter side to him. For example, he was always perfectly polite to all of Father's business associates when my parents were around. Once he was alone with me, though, he would treat me to the most hilarious imitations of those boring, stuffy men.

Thus, for the next year or so, I was satisfied enough with how life was going. But, as is usual in situations like this, something just _had _to happen to upset the balance.

On a day that was just as hot and oppressive as the day Amon joined the family, Amon and I were in the air-conditioned sanctuary of his room, playing a card game.

It was a strategy game called "Duel Monsters". The game had apparently been around for several years, but we had never really gotten interested in it until now. Amon was always better at the game than I was, so he won most of the games. That was probably be a good thing, since Father would not be happy if he discovered that Amon was getting beaten at anything by anyone, especially if it was a girl.

In fact, Amon was currently on the verge of defeating me for the fifth time in a row when one of the housemaids burst into the room. She had been in too much of a hurry to even knock first.

The maid paused to catch her breath, then apologized for disturbing us.

"Your presence is required in the main sitting room. Both of you," she said, still slightly breathless from her run across the mansion.

Amon and I looked at each other. When we were both summoned to the family room, it was usually because a family meeting had been called. We knew from experience that family meetings were usually not a good sign. The last time we had one was six months ago, and that was to tell us that our (or rather, my) great-grandfather had passed away.

So naturally, we ventured down to the sitting room rather slowly and cautiously.

When we finally got there, we were in for a surprise. The room did not have a somber air to it at all. I'm not sure just how we could tell this-the room still looked the same, right down to the ugly purple velvet drapes. It was some intangible quality that was different; something we couldn't quite put our finger on.

Mother got up from her perch on the silk sofa to greet us. She hugged first me, then Amon. That was another odd thing. Our family was not known for being overly demonstrative, so usually our parents would just stay in their seats for the duration of the meeting. What was more, I hadn't been hugged by Mother at all since I was approximately three years old.

Father cleared his throat impatiently. No matter what the circumstances, he had always been one for getting business over with as soon as possible. Mother obediently hurried back to her seat. I was slightly disappointed, but Amon didn't seem to care one way or the other. Father then motioned at Amon and I to sit down.

Surprisingly, Mother was the first one to talk.

"We have something very important to tell you," she began.

And now Mother was smiling! I almost had a heart attack when I noticed that Father was smiling too. I think that may have been the first time I had seen him do that and actually mean it.

Then, Mother decided it was finally time to break the news.

"You two are going to have a new brother or sister in a few months! Isn't that wonderful?" she gushed.

I certainly thought it was wonderful. If it was a girl, then I could do all the girl stuff with it that Amon never did! And if it was a boy, Amon would have someone he could teach all his sports to.

However, I may have misjudged how Amon would react to this. As I was showering Mother with excited questions, I snuck a glimpse at Amon from the corner of my eye.

He had not moved from his seat. Quite frankly, he looked like someone had punched him in the gut. I had never seen him have such a horrified look on his face before.

"Come on, Amon!" I exclaimed in an attempt to cheer him up, "Isn't this exciting? Aren't you happy?"

Amon didn't reply. I shrugged it off and went back to talking with Mother. Perhaps Amon had just been taken by surprise a bit. I was sure he would get used to the idea sooner or later.

Later, when I knew about how these things worked, I would find out that this had all happened by accident. After all those millions of dollars spent on medical procedures, my parents had given up on having another biological child after adopting Amon. And then they had suddenly gotten pregnant the natural way, without even any special planning!

Life can be ironic like that sometimes.

However, I would not find out about that until years later. Then, I was an ignorant ten-year-old who still thought that babies came out of the mother's belly button. So I just took the whole process for granted, and didn't think much about it.

Sometimes, I thought I couldn't wait until the baby finally was born. It was almost as suspenseful as waiting for Christmas. Maybe even worse than that, because everyone talked about it constantly, and not just in December.

However, not all people were as excited as I was. I had thought Amon would get used to the news, but he was as surly as ever months later. Whenever I tried to get him as excited as the rest of the household was, he would abruptly change the subject.

After a while, Mother and Father stopped watching Amon practicing those sports. Mother's ankles were swollen, so she couldn't stand at the side of the ring for hours at a time. However, Amon would not take that as an excuse. He must have thought that they were doing this just to spite him. Every so often, he would glare at the space where Mother and Father used to be. As usual, he never seemed to notice that I was in _my_ usual spot, being as supportive as ever. Perhaps I wasn't cheering loudly enough for him to notice me.

As the baby's due date got closer and closer, Amon grew even more surly. He developed a slight eye-twitch whenever he saw yet another piece of ornate furniture being hauled up to the baby's room. I wasn't sure just what Amon's problem was, but I decided that I would have to watch him, so he wouldn't do anything rash. I didn't want him to lose my parents' favor, after all.

Sid was born on a dreary day early in March. It had been drizzling intermittently outside for more than twenty-four hours, and everything seemed gray and depressing. It was difficult for anyone to believe that it would be springtime in a matter of weeks. Forget March coming in like a lion-this one was more like a thick wool blanket that was smothering the life out of everything. Kind of an ironic simile to use, considering what would happen in a few weeks, but oh well.

Mother and Father were already at the hospital when Amon and I woke up. As soon as Amon realized this, he stomped back up to his room and slammed the door. He wouldn't even eat breakfast.

I had always been slightly too inquisitive for my own good, and I decided after a few hours that I needed to know just what was bothering Amon. I waltzed right into his room without being invited, and I tried to have my normal cheerful demeanor. That was easier said than done when Amon's back was turned to me, but I tried my best.

"Don't you want breakfast?" I inquired perhaps a bit too loudly. "The cook made doughnuts-don't you want them before they get cold?"

Amon remained silent for several minutes. I waited patiently for him to answer.

Finally, he sighed and said in an exasperated tone, "Ekou, it's one in the afternoon."

I was not deterred just yet.

"Why don't you have the doughnuts with lunch, then? Aren't you hungry for lunch?"

"No."

"But you'll starve if you don't eat!"

"For just one day? I don't think so, Ekou."

This wasn't going anywhere. It was time for me to be serious. I ordered Amon to look at me. He did so, most likely out of surprise. I had never given him a direct command like that before.

I walked over to Amon's perch on his bed and gently laid a hand on his arm. He flinched slightly, but did not pull away.

With newfound bravery, I looked right into Amon's eyes and asked him, "What's been with you all these months? You haven't been yourself."

After another period of silence, Amon said, "I just don't WANT another sibling, okay? They'll just pay attention to _it_, and not me like they should. I've done all those things to make them happy, and now they're repaying me by ignoring me!"

I bit back my irritation. So he thought _he_ was being ignored? For a fleeting instant, I thought that Amon was maybe being a teeny bit too selfish. I suppressed this thought as soon as I was aware of it, though.

In a calm and composed voice, I said, "But Amon, it's not going to be a baby forever. Soon it'll be a little kid who will look up to us. Don't you want to feel important like that?"

There was yet more quiet after that. I waited for Amon to answer, but he never did. I decided that I should probably leave him alone now, and left the room.

As you may have guessed when I mentioned the name "Sid" earlier, the baby was a boy. That made Amon even more upset. If it had been a girl, people would have payed lots of attention to her at first, but then would have ignored her just like they did me. However, a boy meant a rival for Amon. This was a biological son, so Amon was now no longer the first Garam heir in the metaphorical line.

Sid's health problems only made things more complicated. He had been born with weak lungs, so he was barely a month old the first time he was rushed to the hospital with breathing difficulties. He also developed colic, and his constant crying only served to exacerbate the other conditions. And when Sid really got into it, he could cry loudly enough to disturb all areas of the mansion.

"Can someone shut that thing UP?" yelled Amon one night as we were doing homework together. He threw his pencil on the floor in sheer frustration.

"You could always wear earplugs," I volunteered.

"That's not the _point_, Ekou," Amon ground out through his teeth.

I grew quiet again, since I apparently could not see what the "point" was.

Eventually, Sid wore himself out with his own crying, and evidently fell asleep. This was usually how his crying fits turned out. I expected for Amon to breathe a sigh of relief and get back to conjugating Latin verbs, just like he had done all the other nights. Instead, he put down his pencil again and walked out of the room.

I followed him. This was a habit more than anything else. Amon knew his own way around the house now, but I usually went where he went anyway. This time, I was quite surprised when he went to Sid's room.

He stood over Sid's crib for a while, just glaring down at him. Sid was quite unaware of Amon's presence, and continued to sleep peacefully.

I stifled a gasp of surprise when Amon moved his hand over Sid's tiny face. He wasn't thinking of...no, he wouldn't ever do that, no matter how much Sid annoyed him. Would he?

He wouldn't. After a few seconds of hesitation, Amon withdrew his hand. Then he saw me.

"You could have stopped me. Why didn't you stop me?" he asked flatly.

All I could say in reply was that I understood how upset he was, but I knew he was too good of a person to do something like that. What else was there to say in a situation like this?

Right on cue, as if he had sensed that something important was happening, Sid woke up. He gazed at Amon. Then his face broke into a smile; probably the first time he had smiled at anyone voluntarily.

Amon's cold, angry expression seemed to melt away right before my eyes. He leaned over Sid's bed (which was maybe too large and extravagant for a newborn baby), but not in a threatening way this time.

For a few seconds, they just stayed that way-Amon looking down curiously; Sid grabbing onto Amon's finger and smiling. Then, Amon abruptly turned and left the room as if nothing had happened.

I left as well, and I was considerably shaken. I had just seen a side of Amon that I wasn't sure I liked. I loved Amon so much; I didn't want him to be bad! My words had been optimistic, but was that how I really felt?

I would have to think about that later, though. Right now, I would have to get back to my room before one of the servants caught me wandering around past my bedtime.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: A few more notes about this story:

It took me a while to update because I had to reformat how this story was going to unravel. The new version is much darker, and might end up being rated M in the end.

I have heard that most people seem to think that Ekou and Amon are from Israel. Therefore, I'm making them be from there in the story. I know I mentioned Christmas in the last chapter, but there ARE Christians in Israel...I looked it up.

The legal age of marriage in Israel is seventeen (again, I looked this up). Keep this in mind, as it will be important to the story.

Finally, I'm saying that both Ekou and Amon were born in 1988, so they'd be eighteen at the beginning of Season Three. It just didn't seem to work with them being any younger.

And that's about all! I'm glad I finally found time to write this chapter, and I don't know when I'll have time again.

* * *

As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried about Amon. It was like he was trying to make up for his previous inattention towards Sid all at once. From the very next morning after the incident in Sid's room, the two were virtually inseparable. Wherever Amon went, Sid was sure to be draped across his shoulder, or in his arms, or even in one of those infant slings. It made him look quite undignified, and I began to wonder just why he was so obsessed about this when he didn't actually harm Sid. What could a baby do for Amon that I couldn't?

Amon's about-face must have been confusing to everyone else in the house, since they didn't know about our escapade. It remained a secret between Amon, Sid and I.

It was fortunate that Sid had such good company. My parents were always trying to sugarcoat and hide the truth from the public; however, the fact remained that Sid was a very sick baby. He was diagnosed with a severe case of asthma when he was three months old. More often than not, he lay weakly in bed all day, inhaling medicine from his face mask. Amon soon became as skilled at setting this apparatus up as any servant hired for the job. The servants' thoughts on this were unclear.

I wish that I could have spent that much time with Sid. However, our paths never crossed enough to get to know each other well. I was growing up quickly, and my time was mainly occupied by the usual endless lessons on how to be a proper lady. Since my parents would marry me off as soon as it was legal, I'd have to be well-versed in all manners of etiquette as early as possible.

I couldn't help but to get slightly envious of Amon. Sometimes, when it was in the middle of the night, I would lie awake in bed, thinking of what it would be like to have children of my own. Maybe, I thought, marriage wouldn't be so bad after all. Who knows? I might get married to a really nice, handsome man who loves his family. Maybe someone who was a bit like...Amon.

At this point, I would inevitably turn over on my side and try my best to end this train of thought. I instinctively knew that it was not right to think these things about my adopted brother. It always made me feel some sort of vague longing from somewhere deep inside my body; a sensation I neither understood nor liked at the time.

* * *

Late that summer, Sid had a stretch of good health that lasted several weeks. Therefore, my parents could finally hold the party in his honor that they had been planning. This event would be the most lavish I had ever attended, and notable people all the way from Cairo and Dubai would be attending. And, perhaps most importantly of all, I would have to wear a _really_ uncomfortable outfit.

"Can't you make it just a _little_ looser?" I implored as a servant was getting me ready. The servant shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but this outfit was picked out by your parents themselves. This is what grown-up women wear, so be happy that your parents think so highly of you!"

I sucked in a lungful of air, trying to conserve what precious few oxygen molecules I could, as I looked in the mirror. This maid might say that this outfit was "grown-up", but I seriously doubted that actual adult women would wear this much pink! The bodice, the skirt, the trim-everything looked like it had been dyed with rose petals. I even had a wreath of roses pinned onto my hair. In my opinion, it made me look like a walking greenhouse.

Looking back on it, I can honestly say that it was a nice-looking dress. The shade of pink used wasn't the obnoxious bubble-gum kind; it was a pale shade that set off my complexion quite nicely. However, this was back when I was a preteen, and dead-set against anything I deemed to be "babyish".

When the servant was finally done with this torture session, I walked stiffly out of the room. I hoped beyond anything else that I wouldn't trip over this dress's train and fall flat on my face in front of all the guests.

I was moving so carefully and slowly, most of the guests had already arrived when I finally entered the ballroom. I had never seen that many pairs of eyes focused on me in my life. I suddenly became self-conscious of just how much the tucks and pleats on my bodice emphasized my budding breasts. I knew virtually nothing about such matters back then, but I did guess that this was not a coincidence.

Naturally, Father wanted to seize the opportunity to show _all_ his children off. Sid would be cuddled, Amon would be praised...and I would be paraded around for any potential future husbands to see. In doing this, Father had (perhaps inadvertently) turned me into jailbait.

I shuddered as I thought that one of these fat, balding dignitaries who were currently leering at me could be my _husband_ in just six years. I walked by them as quickly as my outfit would allow, and looked through the crowd for my family. Fortunately, they were easy to spot...Amon was the only redhead in the room.

"Ah! There you are...um...Ekou," my father (who still had trouble remembering my name) said when he saw me approaching. Father and Amon were standing together. Mother was a short distance away, showing Sid off to a gaggle of female admirers. For the second time that night, my thoughts turned to the future as I watched Mother. Would I be in her position when I had a baby...surrounded by annoying old ladies who wouldn't stop pinching the baby's cheeks?

Amon brought me out of my musings when he spoke.

"You...um...look nice, Ekou," he said hesitantly; looking down at his feet to hide his blush. Coming from him, that was a huge compliment. I assumed that he was blushing due to embarrassment.

Father gave one of his big, fake smiles.

"Yes, doesn't she?" he said loudly, "I'm sure that she'll be a hit with the guests! Now go and be a good girl, Ekou, and help your mother with hostess duties."

I was glad to have a reason to run off. Father had had more than a bit to drink, and I didn't like how he was looking at me.

The festivities had only just started, and already Mother looked exhausted to me. Worrying about Sid had taken a toll on her health. However, I was awed at how easily she was hiding this fact from the guests. She smiled politely at all the old ladies, no matter how annoying or prying they were.

Contrary to his usual state, Sid looked like the happiest, healthiest baby ever. Unlike Amon, he was as sociable as one could get. He babbled happily in Mother's arms, and seemed to bask in the extra attention he was getting.

Mother was so preoccupied, it took her a few minutes to notice me. When I did catch her eye, she looked genuinely pleased for my company. We hadn't spent any time together for months; maybe even years.

"I was wondering when I'd see you, Ekou! This is your first real party, isn't it? It must be intimidating for you-if you want, I can help show you how it's done." she said warmly. I eagerly accepted. She actually seemed to care about my well-being, unlike Father.

I had a pleasant enough time being the hostess-in-training. Mother even let me hold Sid for a while (the first time I had ever done so, strangely enough). I had to admit, it did make me feel very important to learn all this. Men just don't have the same knack for running these affairs as women do. While the men are off making their big business deals, their wives are in the background making sure things run smoothly. They may think that they can do everything, but they needed females for _this_. (When Amon is King, I am sure he will acknowledge this fact.)

However, all too soon it was time for dancing. Mother looked worried as she handed Sid off to a nanny. She told me that if I ended up dancing with a man who acted strangely towards me, I was to leave and tell her immediately about it. At the time, I wasn't sure just why Mother had said this. There was no harm in just dancing, right?

Poor Mother. Father took the first dance with her, but then she had to entertain a seemingly endless line of strange men. I wondered how she could move so gracefully in those high heels. At least my satin slippers were relatively easy on my feet. Nevertheless, by the time the evening was over, I had firmly decided that I hated dancing. It was boring, my face hurt from giving fake smiles, and my hairpins were seriously starting to poke into my scalp.

And then...there was the food. I had never seen such rich food in such large quantities before, and I learned the hard way that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I ate so many olives that, to this day, I just don't like them anymore.

The party went on until the wee hours of the next morning. Father would have made us older two kids stay the whole time, but Mother convinced him to let us get some rest. I was too tired to even thank her properly. My only thoughts were of my bed, and my nightgown that wouldn't squeeze all of the oxygen molecules out of me. Both Amon and I slept in until late the next afternoon.

* * *

Father was very pleased at how the party had gone. He had created the illusion that he was aiming for...that he had three happy, healthy children. And now that the public had gotten that good image of us, he had to make sure that we maintained that image. While Amon buried his nose in thick finance books, I learned about a new topic; one that was altogether foreign to me.

I still had the same tutors and etiquette teachers, but now someone new joined their ranks. A strange old crone was hired to teach me lessons in assorted subjects. It took me years to find out what her true purpose was. Sometimes, she made me walk around the house with books balanced on my head. She claimed that this was good for my posture. Sometimes, she taught me how to sit; how to walk; how to talk. Mostly, though, she would give me these odd lectures that I couldn't make heads or tails out of. She'd sit me down and go on and on about how purity is the greatest gift a woman can give to her husband, and how I should remain "untainted" until the "right time".

Of course, _you_ all can most likely recognize this for what it was...a very confusing and vague version of sex ed. But I had been sheltered for all of my life, and my best guess was that maybe she was talking about not saying curse words. I would just sit there and nod as she talked; acting like I WASN'T totally lost.

She never talked about the things that were actually applying to me, either. If only she had said that a lot of Middle Eastern women get slight mustaches, and it's a normal part of growing up, I would have been spared a lot of grief. If she had just mentioned that boys often develop later than girls do, I would have stopped thinking that I was freakish for growing up while Amon remained a child.

That was definitely my awkward time. The year I was twelve, I suddenly shot up fifteen centimeters in height, and for a long time I was half a head taller than Amon. Neither of us liked it when anyone pointed this fact out. Also, my feet were too big for my body, my elbows and knees seemed to be flying everywhere at once, and I had a bad case of acne. I was quite convinced that I was the most ugly thing ever to walk the face of the earth.

Okay, I can guess what you're all waiting for...you want to hear about my first experience with _that_. Well, you'll just have to be disappointed then. Even I have my limits. Sorry.

* * *

Also around this time, I began to get interested in boys. I would hang around the grounds, looking at all the muscular, olive-skinned gardeners and stable boys, and I began to get little crushes on some of them. I would even construct silly fantasies about what it would be like to get married to my crush du jour.

Of course, even I knew deep down that this was nonsense. I'd have to marry someone who would give more money to the Garam family. However, my parents saw no harm in innocent flirtations, so long as I always had a chaperon with me. We weren't cpmpletely in the Dark Ages after all.

Amon confronted me about this eventually. He marched up to me when I was in the garden eyeing my newest fantasy sweetheart; a servant named Gabriel.

"Ekou, you have to stop this..ogling. I have been trying to put off saying this, but I cannot take it anymore. It's making you look foolish!" he said sternly. His voice cracked slightly...he was finally starting to catch up to me development-wise.

I eyed him over the rims of my sunglasses, and pushed my hair out of my face (at the time, my hair was so long I could practically sit on it).

"What does it matter to you?" I replied.

"What does it matter to you what it matters to me? The point is, you're acting like...some sort of love-struck goat!"

I began to grow angry and shocked, because I assumed that Amon was saying I _looked_ like a goat. Amon quickly realized his mistake.

"No, Ekou, you fool, I don't mean it like THAT! What I mean is...you are thirteen, for crying out loud! You should start acting your age."

"Why are you telling me this? If I recall, you're YOUNGER than me!"

"Exactly."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

By now, Gabriel the servant was staring curiously in our direction. Neither of us noticed him...this was out first real argument, and we were both spurred on by our active hormones.

"Ekou, can't you see that you'll end up doing something embarrassing if this keeps up?"

"What are you, my FATHER?"

"I don't have to be your father to realize that you're out of line!"

"Okay, then I have an idea! Why don't you just mind your own business?"

Finally, Amon seemed to be defeated. He said nothing more, and walked away in a huff.

Later that day, after I'd thought it over, I couldn't believe what I had done. Even today, years later, I find it difficult to accept. How could I have been so mean to Amon? He is NOTHING like Father! He is good, and fair, and just! He's practically a hero to me. If he thought I was out of line, then I _must_ have been out of line. Amon has never been one to mince his words. He only says something if he really believes it.

I wanted to apologize to Amon, but he was clever at hiding from me. That night, as I cried myself to sleep, I vowed to do whatever Amon said if that was what it took for him to forgive me. If there was a goal he wanted to attain, I would help him reach it.

However, I would not get an opportunity to carry out this plan for a long time. Something definitely changed between us after that day. Amon seemed just as shocked by our argument as I was. We had never fought like that before, and we never did so again. There was a new formality in the way he treated me. We would never again play Duel Monsters together, or romp with Sid in the garden. He devoted himself to his studies, and I tried to do the same. As much as I hated it, our lives were diverging.

When we did encounter each other, there seemed to be a tension and awkwardness in the air...one that I became more aware of with each passing day. Something, somehow, would have to give way. Things stayed that way for what seemed to be an impossibly long time. They stayed that way, that is, until the year I was fifteen...the year that changed everything.

A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter was too short. Hopefully, once I get to the real plot of this story, the chapters will be longer.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I wrote a nice long chapter to make up for the shorter one last time. I was so eager to get it done, I wrote more than half of it in one sitting! Be warned: this chapter has a lot of angst in it. There is also some slight lime-ish content.

* * *

It had been about a year and a half since Amon and I had had our fight. I had just celebrated my fifteenth birthday. It was a nice enough event...for once, my father was nice enough to throw a party for me just like he always did for my brothers. Of course, this didn't have anything to do with what he thought of me personally. No, he was just looking to marry me off as quickly as I could. I was still too young for an actual wedding, but there weren't any rules that said I couldn't be betrothed.

Right now, it was more imperative that I get married than ever. When Sid was two years old, his illness had finally been diagnosed. As it turns out, he had been born with cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis has all sorts of nasty side effects. We had already been accustomed to the respiratory and digestive problems, but _now_ we had learned that Sid would most likely not be able to reproduce without medical intervention. Naturally, this was a huge blow for my parents. The biological heir that they had worked so long to obtain would grow up to be virtually infertile...if he grew up at all. Therefore, I (and my reproductive organs) had newfound importance to the family.

My father took out his rage and sorrow on anybody or anything at hand. I used to find him yelling at the poor servants over the smallest of mistakes. One time, he actually fired one of them because she had put too much salt on his dinner. Mother tried her best to calm Father down, but she was busy with grief of her own. Unlike Father, she did a great job of keeping herself composed in public. However, I sometimes caught her crying when she thought that nobody was looking.

Amon, as usual, was very stoic about the whole event, and treated Sid just like he had before the diagnosis. I think he may have been actually trying to shield Sid from all the upheaval.

I understand that I may be sounding too detached and clinical when describing all of this, but keep in mind that I have never been close to Sid. He has always thought of me more as a servant than a sister.

It wasn't like my parents were telling me all this, though. At the time, I knew Sid was sick, but I was really more preoccupied with my own social life. My figure had finally begun to "fill out" over the past year. I had always been naturally thin, but at least I no longer looked like a stick figure (for which I was eternally grateful). Now, the tables had been turned...now, it was the male servants who were staring at _me._

Sometimes, I even thought I saw Amon looking at me oddly. But whenever I turned my head to get a better look at him, he would always be doing something else. I assumed that it was all in my imagination.

* * *

It was around this time that I met Michael Rabin. Lately, my father had been calling on me to perform hostess duties while he and his friends talked business, since Mother was ill yet again. Father could have asked a servant to take Mother's place...but this way he would get yet another opportunity to parade me around in front of all his rich business allies.

Today seemed no different than the other times I pulled hostess duty. I was finally starting to get the hang of it. If I had thought that helping Mother at the party had been difficult, I had been sadly mistaken. Serving refreshments to ten old guys is the epitome of difficulty in my opinion. At least I made it through the whole process that day without spilling anything.

Michael was the youngest businessman of the group, although he was still almost old enough to be my father. He was one of Father's proteges if I remember correctly, and showed much promise in the world of finance.

I noticed him almost immediately, since he was the only man in the room who wasn't all hairy and fat and old-looking. I wouldn't say he was exactly pin-up material...but then again, neither is Amon. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

As I served the coffee, Michael kept sneaking glances at me when Father wasn't looking. This was unlike the other friends, who would keep gawking at me whether Father was preoccupied or not. And it definitely wasn't my face they were looking at, either. When he smiled, it seemed to be genuine; not just a leer disguised as a smile. I think I started falling in love a bit right then and there.

The meeting was just wrapping up when Amon walked in to the sitting room. He was supposed to have been there the whole time, so Father could show him off as well. However, Amon was more clever than me, and always found some excuse to be late or leave early.

At once, Father went into his usual spiel about how _promising_ Amon was. About how he wasn't even fifteen yet, but he was already taking college-level courses. I was all but forgotten. Nevertheless, one person was still watching me.

Amon couldn't take his eyes off me as I took as much time as I could clearing Michael's cup away. His face looked mildly annoyed. I knew his well enough to take this as a huge warning signal. When Amon let his facade slip even a small amount, it meant that he was majorly pissed off.

No, he didn't like Michael one bit.

* * *

If Michael had noticed this, he made no sign that he knew. From then on, he came to our house almost every day. Sometimes, he even showed up when there wasn't an official get-together scheduled. Father seemed overjoyed about this, and encouraged the visits as much as he could.

"She's perfect for you!" Father would exclaim jubilantly, as if I wasn't in the room hearing every word, "But I hope you'll just be able to wait a bit for her!"

Michael would laugh along with him, but shot sympathetic looks at me when Father continued to crack himself up.

At this point, Amon would almost invariably mumble something about how he had homework to do, and get out of the room as quickly as he could. He always slammed the door a little _too_ loudly.

But for once, I didn't care about what Amon did. I thought that maybe he just got fed up by the mushy stuff. As for me...keep in mind that I was just fifteen, so I was easily won over by the most cliche sentimentality.

After a few weeks, Michael started bringing presents for me when he visited. He also always had a little something for Sid, so the little kid wouldn't get envious. But while Sid was more than content with candy and toy cars, I got some more elaborate things.

The first time he did this, I was caught off guard. He had bought me such a pretty silver hair ornament, I had to struggle to maintain my composure. Thankfully, I was able to wait until I was alone before squealing excitedly over it.

It was no secret that my hair was my best feature. It was wavy and thick and shiny, and I wore it down to my waist. I would spend hours in front of the mirror just brushing it. It wasn't like there was much else about me that was attractive. My forehead is too flat, my chin is too pointy, and my nose makes me look like a rat. That's just as true now as it was then, and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Sometimes, I wonder what happened to that hair clip. I guess it must be buried in one of my jewelry boxes back home. It's not like I have much use for it anymore. Back then, though, I wore it nearly every day.

I had just barely gotten over the excitement of the hair clip when Michael showed up with _another_ present. This time, it was a locket. One might think that I would have started to get bored of jewelry, but I found it to be even more thrilling than the previous gift.

"Isn't it beautiful?" I gushed while showing it off to Amon. All Amon did was shrug. I should have backed off then. However, I was too happy to realize that he really didn't want to talk about it.

"So...what do you think I should put in this?" I asked him. Once again, there was no reply. Oh well. I had plenty of time to think on the matter.

Amon most likely thought what pretty much everyone else did...that all those presents weren't free. The servants wouldn't admit it, but they all thought that Michael and I were sleeping together. Although I still didn't fully understand why the maids kept throwing Michael scandalized glances, I could tell that they didn't like him much more than Amon did. Well, let me just say right now that those rumors are completely false. Michael always acted like a perfect gentleman towards me. For months on end, he never even did so much as hold my hand. I have no idea why everyone always wanted to portray him as some evil pedophile.

Before you get all convinced that this story will have a "happily ever after" sort of ending, though, I'll just spoil the surprise and reveal that I did not end up marrying Michael. This is simply not that sort of story. Life ended up having other plans for me.

* * *

As the weather became warmer, Amon grew increasingly surly. He glared at Michael whenever the older man tried to strike up a conversation, refused to talk to me, and even grew short-tempered with Sid sometimes. Now, he has never exactly been Mr. Sunshine (despite his name), but this was getting ridiculous. I resolved to talk to him about it.

Even today, I still wonder...would I have gone through with this had I known the long chain of events it would set off? I'm pretty sure I would have. Sometimes, people just need to take risks.

I hadn't been in Amon's room in ages; not since our argument. He was quite surprised when I showed up at the door. He had already changed into his pajamas, and it was still early enough for Sid to be awake. I noticed just how tall he had become recently. For the first time, I had to look up to meet his eyes. He said nothing, but looked at me quizzically.

"We should talk," I finally said as politely as I could. I tried to walk into his room, but Amon blocked the doorway with his body. I wasn't sure why he wasn't letting me in his room now, when I'd been there so many times before. However, I decided not to press the issue further. I was here to try to reason with Amon, not get into another fight with him.

We just stood there and stared at each other for a minute or so. I began to feel uncomfortable. That old longing sensation was back again, and it was stronger and more mysterious than ever. I wondered if Amon felt the same way, but I decided he probably didn't. After all, he was so much more mature and collected than I was.

I was a mixture of relieved and disappointed when Amon broke the silence.

"Well? Did you want to say something to me, or are you going to stand here staring at me all night with your jaw gaping open like a fish?"

To my embarrassment, I realized that my mouth really _was_ hanging slightly open. I closed it as quickly as I could, then started talking hesitantly.

"Amon...why are you so mad at Michael? He's such a nice person, and I like him. Why can't you just be friends with him?"

I decided not to address his ignoring of me. I was used to his behavior, and I was only worried for Michael's sake. As it was, I seemed to have touched a sensitive issue. Amon's eyes narrowed, and he moved his head at just the right angle, so his glasses glinted threateningly (I know that doesn't sound particularly scary, but it always frightens me when he does that.) However, he managed to keep his tone of voice relatively calm.

"Why don't I like him, you ask? Well, maybe it's because he absolutely disgusts me."

This confused me. Michael was _not_ disgusting! It wasn't like he had bad hygiene or manners or anything, which was the only relevant definition of "disgusting" that came to my mind. I wanted to ask what he meant, but Amon did not elaborate. Instead, he simply wished me good night and closed the door to his room.

As I walked back to my own room, I felt very frustrated. I didn't even know why I was so frustrated, which just made it worse. Once I was in bed, I thought for a very long time about what had happened. I didn't want to make Amon mad, but I liked Michael too.

It was very difficult for me to get to sleep that night.

* * *

I was hoping that Michael wouldn't visit the next day. I still had my feelings to sort out, and I wasn't sure I was ready to face him. Unfortunately, however, Michael walked into the house with Father at the usual time.

I tried my best not to look at Michael or encourage him in any way. When he tried to greet me as usual, I averted my eyes and mumbled some response or other. Luckily, though, Michael was mostly involved in what sounded like a serious business conversation. I would have normally been disappointed at the lack of attention. Today, I just wanted to get out of that room as soon as possible.

Amon and I ended up leaving the room at about the same time. He hardly even acknowledged my presence, and went his own separate way. For a time, I wandered the halls alone. I had no real destination; I just wanted to be alone to think over this some more.

At length, I paused beside a big bay window. I felt calmer absorbing the sun, since I rarely had the chance to go outside anymore. For a long time, I just stood there, wrapped up in my own thoughts.

"Ekou?"

I whirled around at the sound. I think I may have been half-hoping that it was Amon, but apparently Michael had decided to seek me out instead. I looked down at my feet, unsure of what to do.

Michael took a deep breath.

"Okay, Ekou, this is hard for me to say...but I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do. If you want, I'll stop seeing you. You're young...I personally don't think that you should be roped into such an important decision so early."

I looked over at him in surprise. I had never even thought of it that way. I had been happy with the idea of marrying Michael because Father was happy with it.

Had I hurt Michael's feelings today? I hadn't meant to be _rude_ or anything like that.

Before I even knew what I was doing, I ran into Michael's arms and started sobbing. He was caught off guard, but politely hugged me back. He prudently refrained from asking questions.

Everything was so confusing! Did I like Michael or not? More importantly, how did Amon fit into all of this? I definitely felt different around Amon than I did Michael, and I'm not sure it was just because he was my brother.

We just stood there for what seemed like forever. When I had finally calmed down a bit, I began to get very embarrassed. I had probably ruined Michael's shirt because I had cried on it. What would he think of me now? Would he tell Father about it?

And then...as if things couldn't get any worse, I glimpsed a flash of red hair out of the corner of my eye. Amon had been watching us the whole time. He wasn't even hiding or anything. We had been so distracted that we hadn't even noticed him.

I sprang back with a cry of surprise, and ran away as fast as I could. I didn't dare look at either of the men.

Michael called after me to wait; that he would sort all of this out. But I didn't look back.

I wouldn't see Michael again for a very long time.

* * *

That night, I wanted nothing more than to just lock myself in my room; preferably for the next fifty years or so. I had refused to eat any dinner, and I felt like I would never be hungry again.

I had overheard the servants gossiping about Amon's shocking behavior. About how he had completely lost his temper for the first time since he had arrived here. They didn't know the exact details of just what was said, but it was bad. Michael had fled the house, and it was uncertain whether he would ever return.

Amon was in deep trouble, but I had been spared. Through all of this, Michael had kept my breach of conduct a secret. I wasn't sure I'd ever get to speak to him again, but I would be grateful for all of eternity.

I was curled up in my bedcovers. I had had more than enough excitement to last a whole week. Little did I know, though, that my day was far from over.

I guess it must have been about midnight when I heard the knock on my door. Normally, I would have been asleep at this hour, but I had resigned myself to another sleepless night.

I put on a bathrobe and went to answer the door. Imagine my surprise when I saw Amon standing there. I would have thought that he would not want anything to do with me. To this day, I'm not quite sure how he managed to evade the servants...he was supposed to have been confined to his own room.

I looked up at him while tears fought their way into my eyes yet again.

"Why did you do that?" I whispered.

All traces of Amon's temper tantrum seemed to have fled. He briefly closed his eyes, then said, "Ekou, I did what I had to do. Nothing more."

And with that, he invited himself into my room.

"Amon, what are you doing...?"

"Ekou, you're right. We do have to talk."

Well, maybe that wouldn't be so bad. Perhaps Amon was finally willing to reveal the reason behind his vendetta against Michael.

"Look," he began, "I understand that you have been very sheltered throughout your life, so I'll try to put this in terms you can understand. I'm just trying to help you. When I think of...that man...touching and hurting you, it just makes my stomach turn."

I still wasn't sure what Amon was talking about. Why would Michael ever hurt me? I just have looked very confused, because Amon then attempted to explain further.

"Okay, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'll be blunt...you are extremely ignorant of how life works. No fifteen-year-old should be so in the dark. All these years, your parents..._our_ parents... have sheltered you, protecting you from anything that's adult-themed in any way. Obviously, this has backfired. But don't worry, Ekou...I can teach you before it's too late."

"Teach me..?" I answered faintly. I was not used to Amon saying this many words at once. Part of me was starting to become alarmed, and I suppressed it as best I could.

"Yes...teach you," Amon said in almost a whisper as he moved closer.

I am certain that Amon would have left had I told him to, but things just didn't work out that way. I could have started screaming my head off and alerting the servants...yet I didn't. I am a big believer in fate (as you may have surmised already), and if Amon and I were destined to have this relationship, I can't argue about it.

You all can probably guess what happened next. There was still an alarm going off in my body saying, No, this is wrong...but Amon kept murmuring over and over that he was doing this for my own good. That made me feel a bit better...if he said this was all to help me, than he must have truly thought that.

I kept my eyes closed the whole time, since it wouldn't be polite to look at Amon when he had his clothes off. Therefore, I wasn't quite sure what he was doing. All I knew was that it hurt, and I didn't like it very much. Thankfully, it was over pretty quickly.

It didn't take me long to figure out that this was what Michael would have eventually done to me. No wonder that Amon was so upset.

When I woke up the next morning, Amon was long gone. I was left alone; tired, confused, and very sore. I didn't know what all of this meant, but I knew I would still love Amon no matter what happened.

* * *

From that point on, it was like I was living two lives. During the day, I continued to act the same as I always had. For the most part, I was successful at doing this. Not even the old sex-ed crone noticed anything different. I think Mother may have suspected something, but she never voiced any concerns. The nights, however, I spent with Amon.

This must sound like one of those glamorous double-agent movies. But let me tell you, it was anything but. I was exhausted all the time, I lost weight, and my schoolwork started to suffer. However, when I tried to stop, I found that I just couldn't. I was actually growing to like these little encounters as I got more experienced.

My sixteenth birthday came and went, and no new men came to visit me. Father was disappointed by that, but I was secretly glad. I had decided that I was going to marry Amon one day, no matter what my parents thought.

Amon didn't seem to be so keen on the whole marriage idea, though. The one time I brought it up, he immediately changed the subject. I told him I loved him every single night, but he never said anything back. Maybe he just needed more time to learn how to express his feelings. He wouldn't be doing this with me if he didn't love me, right?

It wasn't long before Amon said he was growing tired of doing the same things over and over again. Soon after that, he brought out the handcuffs for the first time. I don't know where he got them. At first, I wasn't too sure about this new stuff, but Amon seemed to like it. Therefore, I decided that I liked it too.

As the months passed, I grew more used to the stress that this double life was creating. It took a lot of work, but I did manage to get my grades back up to a respectable level. All in all, I thought that life was going rather well for me. Then, this delicate setup suddenly collapsed.

* * *

One morning, I woke up with a horrible stomachache. Amon was not with me...he had had to stay in his own room all night to complete an essay for school.

I assumed that this was just a bad case of cramps. I was a couple of weeks overdue for you-know-what, after all. I didn't see anything amiss with this, though, since I'd always had a quirky cycle. So I just popped a couple of pills. That seemed to help out...but only for a little while.

The pain started to nag me again during lunch. I wanted to go up to my room and rest, but I had promised Mother that I would sew with her that afternoon.

I tried my best to have a pleasant time. In some ways, it was. I always liked spending time with Mother, of course, and we found a lot to talk about. One might think that we couldn't find many common interests to discuss, but somehow we did. For example, I had never known until then that Mother was interested in gardening. I had always thought that she just liked staying inside.

The conversation helped take my mind off the tedium of sewing. Then, I felt just about the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming. I don't think anyone who hasn't experienced it will be truly able to understand.

"Ekou?" said Mother in concern, "are you all right?"

I tried to say that everything was fine, but it was clear that I was lying. I started to feel faint.

After a few moments, Mother added, "All right, that's it. You are going to lie down, and I am going to call the doctor."

She helped me over to the nearest couch, but I only took two steps before my legs gave out.

Maybe I should go to sleep, I thought. Maybe when I woke up, the pain would be gone.

The last thing I remember before blacking out was Mother breaking my fall and screaming for a servant.

* * *

I woke up to a steady beeping sound. Ugh...that was annoying. One of my hands feebly waved in an attempt to turn that sound off, but I only succeeded in lifting the hand a few centimeters off the bed. Needless to say, the beeping continued unhindered.

Wait a minute...this wasn't my bed at home. Where was I? I realized that maybe opening my eyes would help me figure this out. It took a lot of effort, but I eventually managed to crack one eye open most of the way.

Even with my sleep-fogged brain, I could immediately tell that I was in a hospital. The beeping was coming from some sort of monitor. There was an IV catheter taped to the back of my hand. I didn't know just what sort of stuff was going through it, but I suspected that it had something to do with why I felt so sleepy.

I barely had time to think all this before a nurse noticed that I was awake. She seemed startled, as if she hadn't expected me to wake up, and pushed some sort of intercom button.

In just a few minutes, a doctor entered the room. He was smiling a bit _too_ much for my taste.

"Hello, Miss Garam. Can you understand me?" He said in a loud and slow voice.

I managed to find enough strength to incline my head slightly.

"Good. We were beginning to wonder when you would regain consciousness...you've been out for two whole days! Your parents have been very worried about you, and they will be glad to hear this good news!"

This doctor was starting to annoy me. He was still talking in that slow voice, like he thought I was a two-year-old or something.

"Do you know why you are here?" the doctor continued. I dearly wanted to make some sarcastic remark about how I was pretty sure it had something to do with that stomach problem. But all I could do was shrug.

"Well, Miss Garam, you were very sick for a while. As it turns out, you had an ectopic pregnancy. Do you know what that means?"

That must have been some powerful cocktail of drugs in the IV, because it took a few moments for those words to register. The first thing I remember thinking was that "ectopic" was a really funny-sounding word. Then I suddenly realized what he was saying.

The doctor then proceeded to explain that I had conceived, but it happened in the wrong part of my body. Then there was this long thing that I didn't really get. The doctor kept going on and on about rupturing and internal bleeding and lapa-something-or-other.

The drugs were making it so I couldn't focus. I decided to go back to sleep. I would think about this later.

When I woke up again, Mother was in the room. I had never seen her be so pale in my entire life. Her lips were pressed together so her mouth looked like just one thin line. It was obvious that she was very angry. I would have cowered under the bedsheets if I could.

Mother explained to me that we would not tell anyone about what really happened. She had informed Father that I had had an ovarian cyst. That was going to be the official story, she said, and I was to stick to it.

Now, when I've had time to think about it, I marvel at the bravery Mother displayed. She lied to her own husband, the rest of the household, and the media...all to keep me out of trouble. Although she did try to ask me who the father was once, when I remained silent she didn't pry further. I don't know what would have happened to all of us had she forced me to admit it. I never did get around to thanking her, and I feel very sorry about that.

I recovered fairly quickly. Sid thought that the bandaged incision on my lower abdomen was just about the coolest thing ever, and he had some newfound appreciation for me. Mother was there almost constantly, and even Father showed up once or twice. Amon never visited. Father said that he was very busy with his schoolwork.

Sometimes I was angry at Amon for this, but then I remembered that not even he knew the truth. He had been told the ovarian cyst story just like everyone else, and there was no reason for him to question it.

After a few days, I returned home. It was odd to be sitting at the table for dinner that first night, since I had gotten accustomed to eating in bed. I couldn't eat much, though. The bandages itched, and that stupid incision was hurting like hell. I excused myself to go to bed early, and fell asleep before I even had a chance to change into my nightgown.

* * *

Sometime in the night, I woke up. At first, I wondered why I had woken up so suddenly, but then I heard a sound I had not heard in years. There was a baby crying somewhere in the house.

Naturally, I had to go investigate. As far as I knew, none of the maids had had children recently.

I gingerly got out of bed, so as not to aggravate my wound. I was careful to be quiet as I walked out of the door. There were no servants in the hall, which I thought was odd. Wouldn't they have been woken up by all that crying?

Finding the source of the crying was like playing a game of hot-and-cold. Sometimes, when I moved in a certain direction, the crying got louder, and sometimes it lessened. I had never before noticed just how many hallways this house had, and I began to hope that I would be able to find my way back to my room.

Then, just when I had begun to despair of ever finding this crying child, I turned down a narrow hall and there it was. It was just lying in the middle of the floor, wrapped in a pink blanket and screaming its head off. But I was still apparently the only one who could hear it...

I ran over to comfort the poor thing. It looked so tiny wrapped in all those blankets...it must have been a newborn.

I scooped it up, and it stopped crying. I unfolded part of the blanket to look at the baby's face. I was pretty sure it was a girl, since it was wrapped up in pink. It had such plump little hands, and a cute little face, and just a tiny bit of red fuzz on the top of its head...

"Miss Ekou! What are you doing up so late? You should be in bed, resting!"

I whirled around. I had been so busy with the baby that I had not seen Sid's nanny sneak up behind me. I felt great relief...this woman would know what to do!

"Oh, thank God you're here!" I babbled. "I found this baby, and it was just lying out here crying, and no one but me seemed to notice!"

The nanny seemed very bewildered.

"...What baby?" She asked.

"The one that I'm holding, of course! See, it's right here in my arms..."

I trailed off. For now, as I looked down at the infant, it had disappeared! The nanny smiled knowingly.

"It's all right, Miss Ekou," she said, "It was just a dream. There is no baby. Everything is just fine. Now let's go back to bed, okay?"

But...I didn't understand! The baby had been right THERE! How had it vanished right out of my arms without me noticing? It wasn't a dream...I swear! I remember how warm and soft the little thing felt when I held it. It was too real to be a dream.

I don't recall walking back to my room, but I suppose I must have. The next morning, I woke up in my own bed. For some odd reason, my pillow was wet with tears.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Remember when I said that this story would have fewer than five chapters? As it turns out, I lied, even though I didn't know that at the time. At the moment, I think there will be two more chapters after this one. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can get at least one more chapter done during the holiday break.

* * *

Eventually, life went back to normal...at least on the surface. I hadn't thought it could, but somehow it did. My wound healed after a couple of weeks, and there was barely even a scar (the incision had actually been a lot smaller than it had felt).

I didn't get to see Amon as much anymore. He was busy studying for a bunch of tests. If he scored high enough, he would get to go to a school all the way in Istanbul! In addition to offering high-level classes in the usual subjects, this place would also teach people how to play that Duel Monsters game! I'd given up on learning all of those complicated rules years ago, and really saw it as a silly children's pastime. Of course, I did not say any of this to Amon...he took the game very seriously indeed.

I wasn't sure how I'd be able to manage without him. Sometimes, I even half-hoped that he would fail the tests. But then I would reprimand myself for putting my own desires ahead of Amon's. At any rate, he achieved nearly perfect scores.

Istanbul really wasn't all that far away...just across a corner of the Mediterranean Sea. For all intents and purposes, though, it might as well have been on the other side of the planet. Amon would be living at the school until he was eighteen, and he would only be home for the winter holidays and summer vacation. I wasn't sure just how I would manage without him.

Worst of all, there would be other girls at Amon's new school. These girls would probably be much smarter and prettier than I was. What if Amon fell in love with one of them and forgot about me?

As Amon began packing his many possessions, I grew more and more nervous. I continued to hear the baby crying on a regular basis. I tried to tell myself it wasn't real, and put a pillow over my head to block out the sound. Usually, the crying would stop at some point, and I could go back to sleep. Sometimes, though, it didn't stop.

Once I even woke up in the middle of the night to find the baby lying on the foot of my bed! I cried out in surprise and shook Amon awake. He would know how to take care of this.

"...wha?...it's 2 AM! Why are you making so much noise?" he said sleepily. I informed him about the baby that was wailing away right at his feet. How could he not notice it?

Amon muttered, "What the hell...?" and switched on a bedside lamp. Immediately, he rolled his eyes.

"Ekou...that's _just_ a throw pillow. A pillow that is making no noise whatsoever. I thought you knew not to wake me up unless it's important, since I have to get out of here early."

I blushed in shame. Now that Amon pointed out, I couldn't see how it couldn't have been anything but a pillow! I was so stupid! When Amon slept with me, he had to get up at 5 AM so the servants wouldn't catch him in my room, and he always let me sleep in! How could I have forgotten that in my moment of idiotic panicking?

After a few moments, Amon added sagely, "Perhaps you are hallucinating due to sleep deprivation. I would suggest taking an afternoon nap if you aren't getting enough sleep at night."

"Yes, Amon," I replied meekly. He always knows what's best for me.

* * *

About a week after that, Amon set off on his grand adventure, and I was left all alone. I was jealous...when Amon didn't have classes, he would get to do all sorts of fun things in Istanbul. Meanwhile, I would be trapped in the house with my boring tutors and embroidery. During _my_ free time, I would just lie on my bed watching TV all afternoon.

I spent those first several weeks alternating between feeling incredibly horny and unbelievably lonely. Although I eventually figured out how to take care of the former, the latter did not go away so easily. I even had a calendar where I marked off the days until Amon returned for Christmas. I was careful to keep this calendar well-hidden.

One October afternoon, however, Mother decided that she wouldn't tolerate any more of my hormonal sulking. I must have been _really_ irritating her, since she usually left matters of discipline to the servants. She had never before taken the time to personally visit my room and upbraid me.

It was a day like any other. I was half-awake, watching some boring rerun or other. Mother's ugly yet very sweet hairless cat (the only breed Sid wasn't allergic to) was curled up at my feet.

A businesslike knock sounded at my door. I was so out of it, I barely turned my head.

"Ekou?" came Mother's voice, "You aren't watching that TV again, are you?"

"No..." I lied as I made a frantic search for the remote. It was half-hidden in the sheets, as remote controls are ever wont to do. I had just located the little bugger when Mother walked into the room and saw that the TV was very much on.

Mother looked at me sternly. Now this was unusual indeed.

"If you keep staring at that thing all day, I will ask the servants to lock it up. Why don't you do something useful for a change?"

I retaliated that I was supposed to be a proper lady, and proper ladies were not supposed to leave the house.

Now Mother was extremely annoyed. This departure from her normal calmness was so sudden, it was almost like she was a different person.

"Yes, Ekou, but you forgot one small detail. Proper ladies also do not lie around all the time until their brains turn to mush. They find _constructive_ activities to do. And that is what we shall do right now...find something to keep you occupied. We begin this moment."

And with that, she retrieved the remote and turned off the TV. By now I knew better than to argue.

I was sure kept busy for the next couple of months. I had never before given any thought to household chores. As far as I knew, that was what servants were for. Even with the dozens of housemaids that our family employed, though, Mother always found something for me to do. I _was_ still supposed to be a lady, so it wasn't like the chores were all that difficult. Nevertheless, my pristine hands were despoiled by being forced to touch common brooms and dustrags. At least, that was how I thought of it at the time.

I was also forced to get plenty of exercise. At first, I did not got the point of this at all.

"But I don't _need _exercise!" I whined, "The dressmaker says I have a twenty-two inch waist!"

Mother remained adamant.

"There can be a difference between being thin and being in shape, Ekou. Your figure may be in control, but you have virtually no muscle tone whatsoever. How will you be able to host parties all night if you don't have the endurance for it?"

And so, I would be sent out to check how the orchards were doing, or to teach Sid how to ride his new horse.

After a while, even I had to admit that the chores were taking my mind off of Amon for long intervals of time. I even got my hair cut so that it wouldn't keep getting all sweaty and matted. The haircut was not as drastic as the one I have today...my hair was still about shoulder-length. Nevertheless, it was quite a change. I thought it made me look quite a bit older.

My muscles were sore every day at first, but I gradually toughened up. It wasn't like I was bodybuilding or anything, so my new muscles weren't all that apparent to the casual observer. But I could definitely see them if I looked in the mirror for a while.

I hoped that Amon wouldn't mind how I had changed when he returned. But, as it turned out, he changed quite a bit more than I had in those few months.

* * *

You know how some events seem so agonizingly far away, and then suddenly they're looming right in front of you? That was what Amon's homecoming was like for me. I was quite startled when I realized it was December already.

The day Amon was taking the airplane home, the whole house was in an uproar from getting ready. We wouldn't be picking him up from the airport...that was the chauffeur's job. Therefore, all we could do was sit at home and wait. Sid was so excited, he kept running up and down the hallways until we were all scared that he would get an asthma attack. Thankfully, he didn't.

Mother was busy overseeing the servants, so for once I was not assaulted with Household Chores of Doom. I spent most of the day looking out of the window, waiting for the car to pull up in the driveway. I would have waited outside, but it was raining.

Amon's flight was delayed a bit due to the weather, so he didn't show up until it was almost suppertime. As luck would have it, the car appeared during the one time I thought it was safe to take a bathroom break. I had been waiting all those hours, and I had missed it! I tried to wash up as quickly as I could, but it was not quickly enough. Father apparently went to the door to greet Amon, and his greeting was not exactly a warm welcome.

Even though the bathroom was quite a ways away from the front hall, I could clearly hear Father's outraged bellow:

"WHY are you wearing a DRESS?"

Amon...wearing a dress? This I had to see.

As I walked down the hall, I heard Amon calmly explaining, "It's not a dress. And anyway, it's what everybody at school wears."

Father was not appeased.

"Don't get smart with me, young man. I am the head of this household, and if I say it's a dress, then it's a dress! Now go up to your room right now and get changed into decent clothes before dinner."

By now, I was close enough to see this controversial apparel. I did have to admit, it did look a lot like a dress. I didn't care, though. Even if Amon wanted to walk around in a tutu and tiara, he would still be Amon and I would still love him. Most unfortunately, Father did not see things this way. He grew even angrier when Amon refused to change.

"Listen, you, I will not have crossdressers in my house!"

Now Amon started to raise his voice slightly.

"I _told_ you, it's _not_ a dress!"

"And I'm telling you that it IS a dress! And are those earrings you're wearing, too? I thought I raised you to know better than that!"

Mother heard the shouting, and rushed in to intervene before it got ugly.

"Dear," she said to Father, "Amon is just a teenager. I'm sure that this is just a phase, and will pass soon. There's no need to get so worried about it."

Amon started to protest, but one look from Mother silenced him.

"And Amon," she continued, "You are welcome to wear your dre...I mean, outfit...at school as much as you want. However, when you are at home, you must follow your father's rules. Do as he says and change your clothes before dinner."

Neither Amon nor Father was exactly happy about this, but the situation was defused for the time being. Amon stomped upstairs, and came back down a few minutes later wearing a more innocuous outfit. Soon after that, it was time to eat.

As usual, Amon was not very talkative during dinner. Everyone had questions about his new school, but he answered them with mostly monosyllabic answers. The reason for this was soon evident. We walked to our separate rooms after dinner, but it only took minutes before Amon was pounding on my door. And of course, I had to comfort him after his long time away from home.

He had learned much more from this new locale than he was letting on. For all of the history and tradition in Istanbul, the school was surprisingly modern and liberal. Although Amon much preferred his studies to partying, he returned home much more worldly than when he had left. What was more, he could barely wait to test all this new-found knowledge on me.

I don't remember too much about the holiday festivities this year. I'm sure they were as wonderful as they always were, but I was too distracted to pay attention to the series of parties. No, the only thing that's clear in my memory of those weeks is Amon.

He had most definitely _not_ forgotten about me. Sure, there had been other girls there, and he had socialized with them some. The more forward ones had even tried to seduce him. But in the end, he found them all to be boring and stupid. At least, that was what he told me. I decided that as long as these stupid girls didn't replace me emotionally, I was content.

For the longest time, I thought that we would never be able to get enough of each other. Amon had brought back many new "toys" from Istanbul, and he wanted to try them all out. Once again, I still have no idea just where he finds all this stuff. If it makes Amon happy, though, I try not to question it.

For the first few days, though, I wasn't so sure about all this new stuff. I had to wear extra-long sleeves to hide the bruises that the ropes made on my wrists, and I'm sure everyone except Amon wondered why often I had a slight limp in the mornings. Nevertheless, I got used to it. I always eventually get used to any new thing that Amon thinks up.

And that is as much detail as I am going to go into on that particular subject. This is by no means supposed to be a "dirty" story. Therefore, I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

* * *

Amon liked my new hairstyle. Of course, he didn't say so outright. But he did tell me to consider keeping it shorter like that. This was close enough to a compliment to satisfy me. Maybe, I thought, if he likes it so much now, I should make it even shorter by the time he returns home for the summer. I would have to be stealthy about it, though. Even now, Father liked to grumble about my hair being too short.

I was not exactly on Father's good side at that moment. I had my seventeenth birthday in January, and there were still no new men. Father would have liked to have gotten rid of me by now.

None of this is really new, I know. But it's not like there was much else worth reporting during the first half of that year. Just the same old boring dinner parties and sewing lessons. Mother was no longer as strict with me about those chores, but she had definitely started some new ambitions in my head. I was no longer content with just staying in the house all day.

I jumped at any excuse for going out and doing something. And that summer, the perfect opportunity presented itself.

I think it was June when this happened, because Amon had just gotten back from school. Once again, it was almost unbearably hot. I was just lying around the house, trying to conserve my energy, when a servant came into my room with a message from Father. Apparently, the whole family was going on an outing, to see something special.

This was definitely something out of the ordinary. Our family just wasn't the type to do spontaneous activities. The only times we truly spent time together were during vacations that were planned months in advance.

We all piled into a relatively small car, as if Father didn't want us to be noticed. This was also odd. Normally, he took the most showy limousines he owned, to show the whole world how rich he was.

After what seemed like forever, we pulled up next to a harbor. However, our journey wasn't yet complete. We had to walk for a good fifteen minutes through a complex maze of buildings and alleys. These alleys were rather dark and scary, so I tried to hold Amon's hand when no one else was looking. He immediately swatted my hand away and glared at me. When Sid started to look scared, though, Amon took _his_ hand right away.

Just when I was starting to worry that Father would lead us to a dead end and shoot us all, we reached our destination. It was a long, low building that looked like nothing special. However, what was _inside_ the building was quite amazing.

"See them?" Father said as he gestured proudly, "They're brand new!"

Yes, this building was actually some sort of hangar. Instead of airplanes, it contained row upon row of submarines.

"Why do we need submarines?" Amon asked.

"Well, Amon, that's a very good question indeed! We got these submarines in order to maximize our profits."

In other words, he wanted to use them to spy on rival companies.

I wasn't concentrating on Father's words right now, though. I was too busy looking at these awe-inspiring submarines. I had never seen one up close before, and pictures did not do them justice. There was just some mysterious _something_ about them. They were so beautiful and round and graceful and...

Okay, I bet you are all laughing at me by now. Fine, then. Laugh all you want. I am simply trying to convey my emotions at that very moment.

Father did not notice this. He was too busy answering Sid's questions. Being the six-year-old that he was, Sid wanted to know every little thing about how these machines worked. Such as...Where was the engine? And, Why didn't the people in them drown? And, of course, How do the people go to the bathroom?

Mother did notice, however, and I do believe that she was smiling.

* * *

I couldn't stop thinking about those submarines. I did all the research I could on the Internet, and I felt as if I had been around these vehicles all my life. I was so involved by this, Amon noticed that I wasn't focusing on him during our time together.

"Ekou... it's no fun when you're like this!" he complained as he put his clothes back on, "Will you tell me what's on your mind already?"

I tried to say that it was nothing, but Amon refused to stop interrogating me until I revealed my secret. So, feeling rather silly, I told him about my fascination with the submarines.

I thought Amon would laugh it off, but he actually listened to me! When I was done talking, he said something surprising.

"Well, if you like them that much, I guess I could talk to Father about letting you drive one of them. It might be difficult to convince him, but I'll try my best."

I was thrilled beyond belief!

"You'd...do that?" I asked. If there was ever a time when I had cliched stars in my eyes, this would be it.

"Of course." he answered. For a second, it looked like he wanted to add something else. I thought he might finally say he loved me. But he ultimately decided to remain quiet.

Oh well. I was deliriously happy anyway. As it turned out, our night together wasn't ruined after all!

* * *

I overheard part of what Amon said to Father, since I "accidentally" picked a sewing spot that was within earshot of them.

"Think about it, Father", Amon said, "No one is going to marry her any time soon. She's not attractive enough to be an asset that way. Why not put her to some use, instead of just letting her hang around the house and do nothing productive?"

I wasn't offended by what Amon said. It was the truth, after all. I was very proud of him for being so honest. At any rate, Father finally grudgingly agreed. He would only let me use the smallest submarine, but that was definitely better than nothing.

If you think I merrily skipped off into the sunset on my adventures right then and there, you are quite mistaken about what it takes to drive a submarine. I had to train for months to get the proper licenses. I also started weight training, sneaking time in with Amon's barbells. Eventually, Father caved in and let me get my own set.

As I mentioned earlier, my job would involve obtaining secret information from other companies. I would sneak around in the submarine, snooping on sonar readings from the rival ships. I'm afraid I can't go into much more detail than that. This is top-secret stuff. Even the little that I'm giving away could get my father's company into deep trouble.

Of course, Father wasn't expecting me to do much of any worth, which is why I got the least expensive equipment.

All in all, it took me over a year until I was ready. You would be very bored listening to me recount all of the little details. Really, who cares how many situps and pushups I did, or what drills I participated in? In the end, though, Father deemed me ready. They thought I would never be able to handle the pressure, but I did.

He was not exactly happy about the new haircut I got, though.

"First my son wears a dress, and now my daughter cuts her hair like a boy? Does anyone in this house know which gender they are?" he complained to no one in particular. Since Amon was now eighteen, he was free to wear his "dress" as much as he wanted, and Father was sore that there was nothing he could do about it.

When I wasn't busy with submarine training, I stayed up all night studying Japanese. Amon had ordered me to start learning the language, for reasons I would not discover until a bit later.

* * *

That summer was also the time that Sid got sick.

It started with a cough. There was nothing alarming about this. Coughing was even encouraged in people with cystic fibrosis, so all the mucus could be cleared from the lungs.

Over a few days, though, the coughing grew worse, until it hurt so much that Sid couldn't do it at all. He had been confined to bed, in the hopes that some rest would make him better.

Amon stayed at Sid's bedside, asking him stern questions.

"Did you wear your compression vest like you were supposed to, Sid? No? You know what happens if you don't do that. I don't care if it's uncomfortable. _You have to wear it._ What about your medicine? Have you been taking that? No? What am I supposed to do with you?"

Amon sounded rather scary, but there were tears in his eyes when he turned away.

Sid was just a boy like any other in most ways, and loved being mischievous. Apparently, he had turned avoiding his therapy into some sort of elaborate game. And now he was paying the price. He got steadily worse, and eventually developed double pneumonia. It was such a bad case that none of the usual antibiotics seemed to work.

Amon would only leave Sid's room to use the bathroom. He even refused to eat more than a few quick mouthfuls of food. He scowled at the doctors whenever they tried a new medicine.

"I try to tell them what to do, but they all ignore me! Why won't they let me help?" He complained to me. I had no answer.

Everyone was sure that Sid had finally run out of luck. They made a plot for him in the family mausoleum, and started planning his funeral. They even went right to Sid's room and measured the poor thing for his coffin. When they did this, something in Amon seemed to snap.

He came to my room one night, but it was not for the usual reason.

"Get dressed in that uniform. We're going out," he snapped at me. I obeyed as quickly as I could.

We snuck out in the old Mercedes (the same one that my parents had used to find Amon, coincidentally). I grew nervous. Did Amon know what he was doing? He was driving into the part of the city that we had been given strict orders never to visit. The red-light district was here, and everything was filthy and poverty-stricken. However, Amon seemed to know his way around this place as if he had lived here. I realized with a start that maybe he _had_ lived there.

We stopped at what looked to be some sort of shop. Amon told me to wait in the car. I was quite relieved...I didn't want to stay out here where I could be mugged. Or worse.

Amon went into the building. The door, which was poorly made, remained wide-open, so I could see what was going on fairly well.

The proprietor of the store seemed to be some sort of medicine man. I guessed he was a Druze from the way he dressed. I didn't know too much about this Arabic minority population...Father had told us to stay away from them if possible. Now that I'm thinking about it, he may have just been worried that they would be rivals for his business. But I digress. This is not about Father's possible bigotry. This is about Amon.

Amon was very respectful towards this elderly, unkempt man. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he actually bowed at the man's feet! I hadn't think that he could ever bow down to anyone. He bought what looked to be all the medicines that the man had, bowing as he respectfully backed his way to the door.

So was Amon going to try homeopathic remedies to cure Sid? Well, we were at the point where we just tried anything we could. Plus, it wasn't like it would make Sid any worse. I didn't have much confidence in folk remedies, but I wisely kept my mouth shut.

I would never be sure whether the medicine actually worked, or if Sid recovered on his own. But somehow, he made a miraculous recovery. Once again, I see that I might not be showing the proper emotion for this event. In truth...well, I don't want to say that I wished that my brother would _die_, but...all right, maybe deep down I did. I never liked the way Amon had to answer to him. Sid wasn't even aware of it, but he only served as a hindrance to Amon's goals.

The night Sid recovered, I heard the baby again; the first time I had heard it for several months. I was quite perplexed. Why was the baby still a newborn, when more than two years had passed since we first met?

A/N: The last two chapters are where the really good stuff starts to happen! Michael will play a big role, and I'm hoping to tie up all the loose ends.


	5. Chapter 5 Part One

A/N: I'm putting all my author's notes at the beginning, so they won't interrupt the story any more.

I decided to split the next chapter up into two parts, since it was a long chapter and I wanted to get something posted. Sorry again for being wrong about the chapter count. TT

The committee that Ekou mentions while considering a "plan of action" (I don't want to give too much away...) is an actual part of Israeli law. Wow, I'm getting pretty finicky about details here...XD

Well, there's not much else to say. I hope that you enjoy the chapter, and that it's as realistic as I tried to make it.

* * *

"You're going WHERE?" I asked incredulously. Amon glared at me, and made a shushing motion with his finger.

"Don't shout like that, Ekou. You'll wake up Sid."

This conversation was taking place as we were keeping vigil at Sid's bedside. His fever had broken, but he wasn't out of the woods yet. He still spent most of his time sleeping. The doctors said it might be weeks before Sid would be back to his normal self.

Amon had been sitting there, so calm and contemplative...and then he had dropped his bombshell in a perfectly mild tone of voice. It was like he was talking about the weather or something. I had thought, since he had graduated from school, we could finally be together. And now he told me he was leaving yet againཀ

In a quieter voice, I tried again to voice my disbelief.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. Your old school is sending you all the way to Japan as a part of a foreign-exchange student program? Why would they do that?"

Amon paused to rearrange Sid's blankets before answering. I waited as patiently as I could, since I knew Amon always took time to choose his words carefully. When he finally spoke, he did so as calmly as before.

"Yes, I think that you have gotten the general idea. But you make this sound like it's the end of the world. I only have to spend one year at the school, and this is the opportunity of a lifetime. These are some of the most prestigious academies in the world, and I will have the chance to meet all sorts of influential people. Plus, we might not be separated as much as you might think."

I looked at him questioningly; careful not to interrupt him.

"I've also heard some unfavorable rumors about some of the other students that will be participating. I plan to investigate this, and I'll need your help to do that. This will be your first real mission, but I'm sure you'll be able to help me out. Father doesn't realize your true potential."

I was so happy and relieved, I wanted to sit on Amon's lap right then and there and kiss him all over his face. However, I was pretty certain that he would not like that. Instead, I asked, "What sort of things would you want me to find out?"

"I can't tell you yet, Ekou", he replied, "The rumors might not be true, after all. We'll have to wait until we can get some good evidence."

* * *

I gradually found out more of the details about what just what this program involved.

There were a total of five schools that would be taking place in this exchange. Actually, as it turned out, it wasn't much of an exchange at all...more like a really long convention. They would all be meeting at an island a few hundred kilometers southeast of Okinawa. This was where the host school was located.

The other four schools were located in very diverse locations. There was Amon's school, of course, which was called East Academy. Another school was situated in Sydney (appropriately enough, it was called South Academy). North Academy was located way the hell up in Siberia or somewhere like that. And finally, there was West Academy. This one was in London, and it was known for taking in a lot of African refugees.

I wondered where they had gotten all these directions from. North and South I could understand, but where did the East and West come from? Wasn't Japan pretty much east of everything? Who knows, maybe the Japanese people have a different perspective of things.

And wouldn't you know it...that Japanese school on that tiny little island was the one that started it all! It was like the parent school, and the other ones were its children. I thought that Amon would detest this idea of his school being lower-level than something else, but he didn't seem to mind.

Naturally, I knew that Amon's school was really the best, since it had Amon representing it. He would show all of those other students who was superior!

I began to prepare for moving away from home. I'd be pretty much by myself. Amon said he would call me and e-mail me on a regular basis, but we wouldn't get a chance to actually see each other until the winter break.

I was worried I would make a mistake. What if I crashed the submarine into a coral reef? What if I didn't get the correct information? I trusted Amon's judgment, though, and I would have people helping me. Still...all of this responsibility was very stressful.

I was also concerned about Mother. She looked so...sad. Of course, that might have been because I was leaving and Sid was ill, but it seemed like it was something deeper than that. I started to think that maybe I should stay here after all, because she didn't appear to be in good health. I felt like she would break in two if I so much as hugged her.

You know how in some sappy movies, there's a scene where the mother and daughter have a heart-to-heart talk and find out everything about each other? Well, no such thing took place between us. And now, it will never happen. I like to imagine that Mother always knew I wouldn't make a good proper lady, and helped steer me down a more suitable path. Alas, I'll never know for sure just what she thinks about me.

* * *

Amon and I would have to take two separate flights to reach our destinations. Amon would take a commercial airplane to Tokyo, then get to the island by boat. I'd have to fly in a special private plane; one that would hold my submarine and staff as well.

The night before Amon left, he slept in my room, since we wouldn't be seeing each other for quite some time. I had wanted it to be a romantic occasion, but that didn't happen. We basically fell asleep right after we were done, like an old married couple. I knew better than to complain, though.

Amon had an eight-o-clock flight to catch. Therefore, we both had to get up at an obscenely early hour so he'd have time to leave my room and get ready. And then, once we were all finally downstairs, we had a pajama-clad Sid to contend with.

"Will you_ promise_ that you'll be back?" Sid whined as he clung on to Amon for dear life. He had a surprisingly strong grip for someone who was still under the weather.

Amon rolled his eyes at me when Sid and our parents weren't looking.

"Yes, Sid", he said with all the patience of a saint, "I promise. I'll try to come back home for Christmas and your birthday, and next summer I'll be back for good. Now, I need you to be a big kid, and stop clinging onto my leg so I can catch my plane."

One of Sid's greatest ambitions was to be treated more like a "big kid", so he did as Amon said. He barely even looked at me as I followed Amon out the door...I think he may have been intimidated by my uniform.

We were mostly silent on the car ride over to the airport. I had many things I wanted to say, but couldn't. Even though there was a glass partition separating us from the driver, we didn't want to take the slightest risk of him overhearing us.

Sometimes I had to remind myself that my relationship with Amon would not be accepted in polite society (or pretty much any society, for that matter). If my parents ever found out about it...well, Amon would be lucky if he was just kicked out of the family.

Once we were outside the airport, we had some more space to stand out of the servant's earshot. Even then, all we could do was talk...no public displays of affection whatsoever.

It wasn't like Amon had much to say, anyway. After some small talk, we just stood there for a few minutes. Then, just before Amon had to leave, he did something unexpected.

"Here. This is for you." he said shortly as he handed me a flat object. Then, without another word, he turned to go inside the terminal.

He had given me an envelope...just a plain white one that people use to send letters. There was no writing on it, but I could hear something inside it when I shook it.

As soon as I was back in the car, I opened the envelope up. Wouldn't you know...Amon had given me a little snapshot of himself! I knew this was a major deal, since he normally hated to have his picture taken at all. I must admit, my eyes got a bit teary.

I knew I would have to keep this someplace special, where it would be protected against the elements and safe from prying eyes. Perhaps in my wallet? No...that would be too obvious, and not special enough for a gift such as this.

Then I remembered about the locket that Michael had given me all those years ago. I never had found anything to put in it...until now. I was a bit worried about the ethics of it, though. Would it be okay for me to put Amon's picture in a locket that another man had given me? In the end, I decided to just hide it beneath the high neck of my jacket. Amon would never have to know.

* * *

Life on the submarine was hardly a thrill-a-minute experience. The novelty of living underwater wore off after a few days, and I had been given no assignments as of yet. The other soldiers on the boat kept mainly to themselves. I think they may have been just a bit resentful at being under the command of a female teenager, but they kept their mouths shut.

The submarine was about eighty meters in length. Apparently, that is relatively big for a submarine, but it sure felt small to me. Much of the already limited space was taken up by engines and computers. I did get my own small cabin with a bathroom, which was another thing that the soldiers weren't too thrilled about. _They_ all had to share with others.

Everything on board was so gray and depressing. I realize that spy submarines are not built with leisure activities in mind, but I hadn't realized just how isolated everything would seem.

All I had to keep myself occupied were Amon's phone calls from _his_ boat. According to him, the representatives from the other schools were an eccentric bunch. They all greatly annoyed Amon with their horrible Japanese and their odd customs. One particularly annoying guy carried a live crocodile on his back! Amon said that this beast was overweight, smelled of rotten fish, and was generally irritating.

Of course, he did not tell this, or anything similar, to_ them_...he was much too polite for that. He saved it all for me, and I was glad to listen. It took my mind off of my boredom. Plus, it helped me become more fluent in Japanese, since Amon insisted on conversing in the language as much as possible. He claimed that it would be better practice than doing worksheets.

Once he got to the island, though, the calls all but stopped. I tried to tell myself that Amon was probably very busy getting to know all these people, and he would contact me once he wanted to investigate someone. But I couldn't fight off the horrible feeling that he was growing tired of me.

There had been no one moment where I developed this fear. It had been nagging at me for months. When I had been at home, I had managed to keep it pushed to the back of my mind. Now that I was so far away from civilization, though, it was all that I could think about.

Amon had always wanted my full attention on him when we were together, but now I felt as if _he_ were losing focus. Over the past several weeks, he had had trouble meeting my gaze sometimes, and he spoke even more tersely to me than usual. It was as if I had become some sort of addiction that he was trying to kick to the curb.

I began to get very worried as the weeks passed. The stress was taking a toll on me, and I found it more difficult to get up in the mornings. Sometimes, I just wanted to bury myself in my blankets and weep with the hopelessness of it all. I also grew irritable, and I'm ashamed to say that I snapped at my assistants on more than one occasion.

I hoped that I wasn't coming down with something. This was no time for me to be in bed with a cold or flu. With any luck, I thought, the symptoms were all just in my head, and would abate eventually.

* * *

It had been twenty-nine days since I had left home, and twenty-five since I had last spoken to Amon. There was no way I could be mistaken about this amount of time, since it was all I ever thought about.

I had spent most of the day sitting in front of the computer and performing routine maintenance checks. There is only so much maintenance that one can do in a day, though, so by the afternoon I was just staring blankly at the computer screen and zoning out. I was therefore quite startled when I heard the telephone ring.

My heart leaped up into my throat. I know that's pretty much a cliche, but it's really what it feels like. Amon was finally calling! I knew it was him, since no one else ever called me (or even knew that I was here).

I lunged for the phone while it was only on its second ring.

"Hello?" I said breathlessly. Then I cursed my voice for sounding so squeaky. Amon would not like it at all if he knew I was just sitting around all day, waiting for him to call me! Relationship or not, he expected me to always act professional. Fortunately, he was apparently too distracted to notice. He had no time for pleasantries, so he got right down to business.

"Is this call coming in okay? Good. I have some data I need you to analyze...I'm sending it over right now."

A picture of what appeared to be some sort of monitoring device appeared on the computer screen after a few seconds.

"I need to get to the bottom of this as quickly as I can," Amon added, "so you should be working on this full-time. Please inform me whenever you get some new information."

Before I could do more than indicate that I understood the task, he hung up.

I tried not to be disappointed, but I just couldn't help it. I had been waiting so long to talk to him, and the whole conversation had been over in the time it took him to submit the data! I knew that the phone was not for intimate conversations, but I at least wished he had asked how I was. But then again, if he had asked, how was I supposed to respond? Should I have told him that I had been feeling like crap for the past few days?

I felt my stomach flop. Those damn submarine rations never agreed with me...or maybe it was just anxiety. Well, at any rate, I had work to do, so I had to put this out of my mind for the moment. I took an antacid and started sorting through the pages of information that were now on my computer.

* * *

This thing that Amon found was no ordinary monitor...that much was clear after just a short time of research. With the help of my more technologically-inclined assistants, I found out that the device emitted some sort of odd electromagnetic force field. Said force field seemed to be transmitting something back to one location on the island. Just what it was transmitting I wasn't sure yet, but Amon seemed happy with the information obtained so far when I called him back the next week.

He had been suspecting that a teacher on the island was corrupt, he reported, and this data went a long way towards proving this theory.

"I knew it!" he said triumphantly, "I knew he was up to no good! Now we have to find out more about the source of this electromagnetic field. I've been doing some preliminary scouting around a suspicious area, but there's only so much I can do without getting caught. We are both going to have to improvise a bit to get what we want."

I mumbled out an "mm-hmmm," while swallowing to try to ease the gurgling in my stomach. I was evidently too quiet for Amon to hear.

"Do you copy?" he asked after a few seconds. I replied in the affirmative more loudly, and this time he could hear.

"Good. Well, I'm going to have to go now...the caterers will be arriving soon."

I didn't ask why he needed caterers at a school. To tell the truth, I didn't really want to know. Even the slightest mention of food set my stomach off yet again.

Amon hung up the phone, but I continued to sit at the desk. Just a few more weeks, I thought as I put my head in my hands. This will all be sorted out in no time, and Amon will see that this wrongdoer gets the punishment that he deserves. I couldn't believe that I'd only been on this submarine for a few weeks...it seemed like forever.

I inexplicably got angry. _Fuck_ this submarine. It seemed to be built just to torture me. I felt like punching a hole in the wall, but decided that that might not be a very wise option.

Everything about this place was just so depressing. The boredom, and the cramped quarters, and that horrible smell. How had I not noticed that smell before? It was the rank odor of mildew and rotten fish, and it permeated everything. I couldn't focus on anything else...

And now I was going to be sick. Oh _joy._

After I returned from my dash to the nearest bucket, I decided that I would have to lie down and think about this. Maintenance could wait.

The damn bed had the same stench as the rest of this place, but there was nothing I could do except dry-heave. I hadn't even eaten that much today to begin with, so my stomach was now empty.

What _was_ this? If it was anxiety, it was a pretty severe case. And I wouldn't have thought that it could spring up so suddenly. Food poisoning? Probably not, since none of the other crewmembers were stricken. Seasickness? I hadn't had any problems with it the first days I had been here, and there had been no drastic current changes since then. Some kind of virus? If it was, it was an extraordinarily long lasting one. And again, none of the other people on here were sick.

Then what was it? I was sure there was something I had missed. I closed my eyes, trying to think. And then...

_Shit._

No. Not here. Not now. Not _me._

I'd forgotten all about it, seeing as how I was so wrapped up in worrying and research. But now that I was thinking about it, I remembered that something very important had gone missing.

I was _late_, and I think you all know perfectly well what I mean by that.

This would ruin me, and probably Amon as well. Mother had protected me once before, but I was an adult now. I had to clean up my own messes.

Okay...I should think about how to deal with this as rationally as I could, then. This was no time for soap operas.

The most logical answer, of course, was the one that was most difficult to stomach. We would get a break in December. It would be still be early enough then for me to go back to the mainland, find the nearest clinic, and (to put it very bluntly), nip this in the bud. Simple as that. It might take a while to get permission from that termination committee, but the procedure itself would have minimal risks.

Even so..I knew I wouldn't be able to do it. It wasn't so much a morality issue, I think. It was more fear. I had been through a traumatic experience involving pregnancy and hospitals before, and I never wanted to undergo anything similar again.

Okay, I'll admit it. Maybe the tenderhearted side of me was actually looking forward to being a mother. All my life, I had wanted someone who would love me without question. Amon had Sid, but I had nobody who would give me that kind of unconditional love. This may have been why I never seriously considered adoption.

I knew that I couldn't hide this forever, but for now I would just have to focus on the present. Who knows...Amon might be done with his project earlier than expected. Then we could get married and start a new life. Maybe move to Germany. America. Japan, even. Amon was more than talented enough to be successful without our family's help.

With that thought, I finally began to calm down. Now I could go to sleep, and everything would be fine.

* * *

I tried to be optimistic about this, but by the next day it was apparent that that would be easier said than done.

I was now so sick that I hadn't eaten any solid food for nearly thirty-six hours. I had managed to keep some water down, and a small bowl of soup, but that was it. Whoever came up with the term "morning sickness" deserves to die a slow and painful death (even though he or she is probably already dead anyway). "24/7 Sickness" would be a more appropriate name, at least in my case. I had no idea how I kept managing to vomit so much, since I wasn't even _eating_ anything. Mostly I was just bringing up bile.

The assistants had to have noticed something...I'm sure of it. It's not exactly easy to hide constant dashes to the bathroom. But if they figured it out, they didn't say anything.

In between all this, I somehow managed to do some more research. This was good, since Amon just so happened to call that afternoon.

All thoughts of my own ailment immediately flew out the window when I saw Amon on the viewscreen. He looked even worse than I was! It was almost dinner time, yet he was still in his pajamas. I immediately asked if he was all right, but he brushed off my concerns, saying it was nothing. I wanted to inquire further, but knew that Amon would not appreciate that.

Instead, I told him that we had found something interesting. My research team had confirmed that the suspicious area on the island did indeed house something big. Amon believed that it was all being caused by a rare and powerful card. He said he would go investigate this tonight, illness or not. I decided that now would not be an appropriate time to burden Amon with anything else.

Amon didn't send me any more data, so all I could do for the rest of the day was wait for another message from him. I really hoped that he wasn't getting over his head in this, and that he'd find what he was looking for without getting hurt. This did all seem very sudden, after how slowly the rest of the investigation had gone.

We would have to be ready to come to Amon's aid on a moment's notice. I was exhausted, but couldn't rest. At least my nausea had quieted down for the time being. Night fell, and everything seemed to be going according to plan so far. Amon hadn't told me exactly how he was going to sneak into the building with the rare card, but I had faith in him. And no news was good news...right?

It turned out that that was the calm before the storm. Everything would spiral out of control more quickly than I would have thought possible.

It got to be so late, it was probably the next day already. Despite my best efforts, I dozed on and off. But after a while, I grew too worried to drift off anymore. Amon had said that he would be done by now! If he were done, he would have called to inform us of the successful mission. Enough was enough, I decided. He may think that I was being overcautious, but I just couldn't stand the suspense anymore.

My hands were so sweaty, it took two tries for me to press the buttons that activated the communication system. I could hear someone pick up on the other end, but not say anything.

"Amon?" I asked, "Are you okay?" I had to restrain myself from calling him any pet names in front of the soldiers.

Still no answer.

"Okay, don't worry. We're coming to rescue you right now." I added. His situation must have been very serious indeed, since he did not protest that he didn't need any rescuing (as he would have if he had things under control).

After I turned the communication device off, I saw all the soldiers looking at me; awaiting their next order.

"Don't just stand there like idiots!" I screamed at them, "We have to fucking move NOW!"

They immediately did as I said, perhaps disquieted by my hormone-fueled rage.

We surfaced and moved as quickly as we could. The soldiers pedaled so much, I was surprised that their legs didn't fall off. The submarine had never traveled as fast and far as it was now, and I hoped beyond hope that it wouldn't short out on us.

The amount of ocean between us and Amon seemed excruciating. We kept going and going towards him, but seemed to be making no progress at all. I felt like screaming every time a wave impeded out progress even by a few centimeters. In this case, every single bit of forward motion was crucial.

We had to make it...we just HAD to. If I let Amon down, I would never forgive myself. I could see the island now, getting closer to us very slowly. We had been traveling for half an hour at most, but it seemed like an infinity. But now I could see the details of the cliffs...then the forests...then the beaches...I was in such a hurry to get out of the boat that I jumped before it had come to a full stop. My boots got soaked in the ocean, but I hardly even noticed. I hurled myself over rocks not caring about my delicate condition one bit.

We were almost there...just a few more minutes and then everything would be safe...

We were too late. As soon as I sighted the academy's campus, it just...disappeared. I know that sounds completely absurd, but that's what happened. There was some blinding light, and when I could see properly again, there was nothing left _to_ see.

Amon had been right...something powerful _was_ on this island, and it looked like he had gotten the worst of it. I checked the communication link over and over again, but there was only static.

The soldiers caught up with me, but I didn't see them. I just kneeled there staring into space. Looking back, I wasn't even sure what I was thinking. I seemed to have this notion that if I kept staring at the same spot, it would bring Amon back.

I faintly heard one of them say in a panicked voice that the submarine had vanished along with the school, but I didn't care in the least. All I knew was that I HAD to find Amon right away.

My thoughts started going fuzzy again, and the last thing I remembered for a while was the men trying to drag me away from my spot.

* * *

When I regained consciousness, it was the next morning. I saw that the soldiers had moved me to another part of the forest. My first, horrible, thought was that I'd had another ectopic pregnancy, but that proved not to be the case. I had just collapsed from exhaustion and sensory overload; or so the soldiers later said.

Then..I remembered that I had to find Amon. I dashed off before I was even fully aware of my surroundings, screaming Amon's name. I heard the soldiers trying to call me back, but I outran them.

It took a while, but I found the place where our submarine used to be. I decided that the only feasible plan of action was to find someone and ask them if they knew where Amon was. Who knows...if I'd thought this out more calmly, I might have found Amon sooner. But I was too emotional to think rationally.

After several minutes, I saw a helicopter approaching the island. Aha...so it looked like they were launching an official investigation into this. For the first time, I realized that Amon might not have been the only person who had gone missing.

The helicopter landed, and I charged the first person who exited it.

"ALL RIGHT, YOU BASTARD! WHERE IS AMON?" I shouted. So much for an interrogation. Before I knew it, two men had pinned me down. I was outraged at my own weakness. Had I been at full strength, I could have taken them down...I'm sure of it!

They kicked me off the island without even bothering to listen to my side of the story, and forced me on the next boat to the mainland. This was definitely my low point. I was headed off to a strange land, I was without my submarine and assistants, and most importantly, I was about to be sick yet again.

Well, it was clear now that I wouldn't be able to find Amon on my own. I'd need someone to help me. This person would have to be wealthy to fund my search, and like me well enough to put up with my mood swings. And I thought I knew the perfect person for the job...

TO BE CONTINUED


	6. Chapter 5 Part Two

A/N: CLG's fic (which I strongly recommend you all read) inspired me to get off my butt and write this next chapter. Well, technically I still WAS on my butt while writing, but it's a metaphor, darn it! :P

Well, it's a good thing that I divided this chapter in two, because this part is the lengthiest yet! I was originally going to make this chapter go up to the end of Episode 131, but I decided that enough was enough already! I'll save that for the last chapter...if I don't have to split that chapter up as well!

I apologize if my Alternate Dimension explanations don't make sense, but all I had to go by was canon, which is quite frankly not very much.

* * *

I sat on the deck of the ship, slumped morosely in a plastic chair, as the city of Domino came into sight on the horizon. I wondered why it was called "Domino", of all names. Kind of silly thing to name a city...and it wasn't even a _Japanese_ name. Maybe the founder of the city thought up the name at 3 AM while high and drunk.

That last thought made me chuckle, and other people on the boat deck looked at me strangely. They weren't being openly rude or anything...they were Japanese; how could they be rude? Nevertheless, I was sure that they probably all thought I was some sort of lunatic who had snuck on board without paying.

I'd been sitting in this one chair for almost the whole voyage, staring at a dark spot on the wood floor and nibbling on crackers. Also, I hadn't taken a shower in a week, since water had to be rationed on the submarine. I couldn't even remember the last time I had washed my clothes. All that was missing from this image was cartoon flies and stink waves surrounding me.

But maybe those people were right. Maybe I _was_ a lunatic. Perhaps this was all in my head and I'd wake up in some mental hospital, just having hallucinated these past few months...or even my whole life. Thinking about this made my head hurt, so instead I went back over my plan of what I would do after I got off this boat.

Luckily, I did have some emergency cash on me. I wasn't sure if it would be enough, though. There were no direct flights from Japan to Israel, so I'd have to fly to Cairo and get on ANOTHER plane from there. I had no time to look around for the best bargains, so I'd have to get on the first flights that were available. I wouldn't even get to sit in first class, which I had done all my life.

And even if I did have enough money to buy two separate tickets, I'd have to convert my yen to Egyptian money before purchasing the second ticket. And even if I did find my way to Israel...what if things didn't go the way I'd planned? Where would I go then?

I now had an even bigger headache than before, so I decided to just go to sleep until we reached land.

* * *

The staring continued even after I left the boat. Proper housewives looked at me in thinly-veiled disgust, as if even setting eyes upon me would soil their sterling reputation. Children buried their faces in said housewives' skirts in fright. There was no way for us to avoid each other...I was riding the subway to the airport, and personal space was nonexistent.

The worst part was that they were all much, MUCH too polite to tell me exactly why they thought me so gruesome. I wondered if it was my haircut.

Well, that settled it. Amon and I were most certainly NOT moving to Japan. In this country, first impressions were everything, and I wasn't making a good impression on them right now. At least I wasn't "showing" yet. Their opinion of me was bad enough without the word "slut" being thrown into the mix.

I thought that the torture session would never end, but it eventually did. Once I got to the airport, though, I had to undergo the process of buying a ticket. My Japanese was mediocre at best, so the clerk and I had a difficult time understanding each other. Since I didn't want to lengthen this process more than necessary, I got a ticket for the first flight I saw.

I then had to wait in the airport for several hours, but I'll just skip over that part. I've babbled on long enough about meaningless things as it is.

When I was finally on the plane to Cairo, I passed the time by thinking about my baby.

It would be a boy. I was sure of that. Don't ask me how I knew that; I just did. Of course, he would be named after his father. I began to construct a rather romanticized image of this baby, leaving out the negative stuff (such as constant diaper changes and being kept awake all night) for the moment.

He would be the most adorable baby ever, I decided, with red hair and dimples. I'd dress him in little sailor suits and those cute teeny baby socks. I would take care of him all by myself, even if Amon made enough money to hire some help. I'd hold little Amon, Jr. all day long, and feed him, and give him baths, and put him to bed...

I must have gone to sleep myself at some point, because next thing I knew it was ten hours later and the pilot was announcing that we would be landing shortly.

Eventually, I did find my way back to Tel Aviv. Don't ask me how, because I don't remember. By the time I got there, I was all out of money, so I had to hitchhike to my destination. I thought about all those horror stories we hear about people getting brutally murdered while hitchhiking, but at this point I decided that I didn't care. At least if I was murdered, it would put an end to this relentless "24/7 sickness".

Eventually, the person who gave me a ride had to drop me off, so I took a bus the rest of the way.

* * *

The Rabin Finance Building was surprisingly difficult to find. With such an impressive-sounding name, I had been expecting a shiny, 20-story skyscraper. Instead, it was a nondescript brick structure; only about thirty feet high. I passed by it three times before I realized I had overlooked it.

In the lobby, there were no fancy chandeliers or skylights, like in my father's office buildings. However, it still looked clean and efficiently run. Michael had never been one for showing off, but it seemed like he knew what he was doing.

I'm sure that most of you think I'm crazy for seeking Michael's help, given the circumstances of our last meeting. He had every right to kick me out of the building before I was able to open my mouth. But I felt like this was my one chance to save Amon, and I couldn't think of anyone else to turn to. Obviously, I had failed in doing the job alone. My father would be furious at me for letting Amon go missing, and there really wasn't anything that Mother could do.

The prim-looking receptionist brought me out of my musings by speaking to me in a brusque voice.

"May I help you?" she asked while wrinkling her nose. Apparently, I smelled so bad that she could detect it all the way from across the room.

I walked over (causing the lady to grimace even more), and said in a soft voice that I was looking for Michael.

The receptionist sniffed haughtily at my use of Michael's first name.

"_Mr. Rabin_ is in a meeting right now. Can I take a message?"

I protested that I needed to see him right now. She repeated that that would not be possible.

I think that this was about the time that I started to feel faint. The older woman rolled her eyes when she saw me start to sway on my feet.

"Those theatrics won't work on me, young lady. Mr. Rabin simply does not have time for people such as you. Now leave a message and get out of this building, or I will call security! This is your last..."

I didn't hear just what it was my last of, since I fell unconscious.

* * *

"... Good actress, I'm sure. I'm very sorry for this interruption."

I woke up to hear that haughty voice still rattling away. I noted that someone had put me in a chair, and tucked my head between my knees.

And then, I heard another voice. A familiar male voice, to be precise.

"Look, Hadassa, I've heard just about enough of your excuses. You should have called me down here right away! Do you have any idea just who you were treating so rudely? That fine young woman just so happens to be Miss Ekou Garam. Now go make yourself useful, and get something for Miss Garam to drink right now!"

I couldn't see the receptionist get up, but I did hear her say, "Why didn't she just SAY so?" in an exasperated voice before walking out of the room.

As soon as that harpy was out of the room, Michael rushed over to my chair.

"Did you hear that conversation?" he asked worriedly.

I tried to lift up my head to look at him, but he stopped me.

"No, Ekou. Don't try to move yet. You need to regain your strength first."

I heard him kneel down beside me. Evidently, my smell didn't bother him as much as it had the receptionist. I could tell he desperately wanted to find out why I had suddenly shown up in such a disheveled state, but he asked no questions.

The woman returned with some sort of bottle. I raised my eyes up enough to see that it was apple juice. Ugh...I hated that stuff. I therefore hesitated in taking the bottle, but Michael pressed it into my hand.

"You need to drink this," he said gently, "It will help raise your blood sugar so you'll feel better." I decided to be a good girl, and drank half the bottle. I even managed not to make a face, which was no easy task. The disgustingly cloying aftertaste seemed to remain in my mouth forever, but at least it was easy on my stomach. Aside from the crackers and soup, it was the first thing with any nutritional value that I had consumed in over three days. I wasn't sure what the exact amount of time was, since I was too tired to calculate the time difference between Japan and Israel.

I was finally able to sit up straight, and Michael smiled to see me more alert.

"Now then," he remarked, "Would you like to stay at my house for a while? I'll phone ahead and ask the maid to prepare a guest room for you."

Really, I was in no state to refuse his hospitality. As Michael started helping me to the door, Hadassa protested yet again.

"But Mr. Rabin! What about the meeting?"

Michael looked at the woman with infinite patience.

"Hadassa?" he asked.

"Yes sir?"

"To hell with the meeting."

* * *

I thought it astounding how Michael decided to help me with no questions asked. It was just like we were picking up where we had left off all those years ago. I had had no idea that any human could have such a capacity for forgiveness. Forgiving people easily was a quality that one did not see in many businessmen. If they were too lenient to their rivals, their business would get eaten alive.

Michael's house was just as unassuming as his workplace. It was half the size of my father's mansion...if that. What was more, most of the rooms were scarcely used, since the house was only inhabited by Michael, his housekeeper, and some part-time employees.

I felt a bit bad assessing his material possessions when he was being so hospitable. I guess it's just an inborn habit among the wealthy. At any rate, I at least tried to make it _look_ like I wasn't looking, which is more than my father would do.

This is not to say that he was impoverished. The room I would be staying in was elegantly furnished, and had an adjoining bathroom. Michael had even moved his only plasma TV in there. This place was as lavish as my room back home. Well, almost.

The first thing I did when I got to my room was take a shower. The grime and sweat on my body had become almost like a second layer of skin, so I took my time in scrubbing it all off. By the end, the cute bar of soap provided was filthy, and much diminished in size.

Since my own clothes had been taken off to be washed, I got dressed in a nightgown that the housekeeper had graciously lent me. Then I collapsed on the pillow-laden bed and fell asleep. This seemed to be yet another pregnancy symptom...I couldn't get enough rest no matter how I tried.

When I woke up, I was hungry for the first time in days. No, I take that back...I was absolutely _ravenous_. Again, Michael seemed to have foreseen this, because he had the chef prepare one of the biggest meals I had seen in a long time.

Unlike my family, Michael followed kosher rules, but at this point I couldn't care less. I tried very hard to be polite, but in the end gobbled everything off my plate like a messy dog. Oh, I knew I'd pay for gorging myself like this, but I couldn't stop. Michael politely refrained from commenting on my bad manners.

After dinner, I tried to sneak back to my room, but Michael stopped me and said the words I had been dreading.

"Ekou...aren't you going to tell me why you're here? Of course, I'll be glad to help you in any way I can. I just have to know if anyone's been hurting you."

Hurting me...that had been the exact phrase that Amon had used so long ago. Did Michael have the same intentions?

I resolved that there was no way Michael would see me cry this time. I was much too mature for that now. Yet I couldn't look directly into his eyes without feeling the urge to bawl. My gaze remained entrenched on the floor, to prevent such an embarrassing situation from occurring again.

He waited patiently for my reply. Finally, I decided I had to say something. Of course, there was no way I could tell him the whole truth, but I would try my best.

"I think I need your help," I began.

I said as vaguely as I could that someone important had gone missing, and I needed Michael's help in locating that person. I did not mention Amon's name, but I knew that Michael would be able to see through that.

He didn't ask any questions. He just nodded and said that he would do what he could to help me find this "mystery person". A feeling of calmness finally washed over me. My hard work had been worth it. While I hadn't found Amon quite yet, I was well on my way to doing so.

I turned back once again to go back to the guest bedroom, but Michael wasn't done talking.

"Are you sure that you're all right? I'm worried about your health...you look so pale and tired. You should go see a doctor tomorrow."

I shook my head vehemently. If I went to see a doctor, then he or she would find out my secret, then they'd tell Michael, who then might not want to help me anymore!

Michael looked skeptical at my refusal, but decided not to press the issue further, and bid me good night.

* * *

I was exhausted, yet I couldn't sleep yet. I had too many thoughts racing around in my head.

Obviously, Michael thought that Amon was abusing me. He never said so, but he and I both knew it. It made me wonder just what had been said in their little exchange. Had Amon threatened Michael... or perhaps even _me_? No, Amon was too collected to resort to cheap threats...right?

I was starting to wonder if Amon had ever loved me at all. I wasn't deaf...I had heard the scurrilous rumors about what his social life had REALLY been like at that school. His name had been linked to several girls during his time there, and even a few _guys_. Servants gossiped over everything, so for a while I had just ignored it. But what if it was true? I still believed Amon when he said that the other girls had no personality...but was personality really everything?

But if he didn't love me, then why did he keep coming back to me? I had thought that we were soulmates for so long, and I was still determined to make this work. I would even let him continue those affairs with the other girls, if that was what would make him happy and keep him with me.

But...what if he would be happiest without me there at all...?

At this point, I thought I heard the very faint sound of a baby crying. I had finally decided a while back that this was all in my head, since there was no way that this baby could have remained a baby for so long. Well, that was just great. I was already pregnant, cheated-on, and living off someone else's hospitality, and NOW I was also hearing voices.

Just why did I keep hearing that baby, anyway? Did it have something to do with that ectopic pregnancy? I preferred to keep that incident buried in the back of my mind, since it was too painful for me to think about.

Now, of course, when I've had a couple of months to remember the details of what happened, the link between the two events is obvious. But at that moment, my brain was pretty much fried from all that had happened.

I decided to employ a tactic I often did when things were stressful...go to sleep and think about it later. It took a while, but I eventually did just that.

* * *

In a lot of stories such as this, the characters are confused when they wake up in a new place for the first time. Well, I had no such confusion when I woke up the next morning. And if I did, it was all buried by the one instinct that immediately roared to life: get to a bathroom right away.

I knew it had been a bad idea to eat so much food on a half-starved stomach, but I just hadn't been able to rein in my baser instincts. And now, I was having the sickness attack to end them all. The part of me that could still think seriously wondered if I would be stuck in front of this toilet for the entire day.

After a few minutes, someone knocked on my bedroom door. It was the housekeeper, checking to see if everything was all right. I didn't answer, since I was kind of busy at the time. She then walked into the bedroom and tapped on the bathroom door itself, but thankfully walked away after a minute or so.

When my stomach finally stopped heaving, I got myself cleaned up and walked out to the hallway. I saw the housekeeper whispering with Michael several feet away. Uh-oh.

Michael then saw me, and looked at me worriedly. I hoped for the best.

"We got you some new clothes. They're not fancy, but I think they'll do until we can get you some better ones." he stated as he gestured at a large plastic shopping bag.

I hurriedly stammered that getting nicer clothes would not be necessary. Really, I just wanted them out of my way so I could go back to bed.

"Are you sure?" Michael answered. I didn't answer, and he held out the bag of clothing to me.

I had just started to think that everything was okay when he dropped the bombshell.

"Well, get dressed quickly, then. We're going to the hospital."

DAMMIT.

Michael insisted on driving me there in his nicest car. We didn't say a word to each other on the way over. In fact, I wasn't even quite sure where he was taking me. I passed my time by looking out the window, thankful that the glass was tinted so people on the outside couldn't look in and see me.

And then...oh no, he was pulling into the parking lot of Sourasky Medical Center. Specifically, the part of the center where the women's hospital was. I was doomed. I wished I had a big floppy hat and sunglasses, so people wouldn't recognize me on my Walk of Shame. I knew I was probably being melodramatic about all this, but those damn hormones were taking over my body!

Michael still was keeping his silence during the seemingly infinite trek across the parking lot. I couldn't figure out whether it was due to embarrassment or anger.

Then when we got to the actual building, the suspense was built up even further by the long wait. Michael later insisted that we were only in the waiting room for about twenty minutes, but it felt more like twenty _hours_ to me.

While Michael was at the check-in desk, I was bombarded by questions from other women in the room. I stared at them blankly until they got the picture and minded their own business. Really, what was it to them whether this was my first baby or not?

And when they weren't trying to talk _to_ me, they were talking _about_ me. They didn't think I noticed, but I saw how all those women looked pityingly at me then murmured to each other. Obviously, they felt very sorry for the poor unwed teenage mother who was sitting way over in the corner of the room.

There was one scary moment, though. One woman not much older than me tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Excuse me...have we met before?"

I shook my head while maintaining my "mind-your-own-business" demeanor. But this lady was persistent.

"Really? I could have sworn I've seen you someplace before. But I just can't remember where! Wait...let me think for a second..."

Thankfully, a nurse spared me total humiliation by walking up and informing the woman that it was her turn to be seen by a doctor.

Shortly after that, Michael returned from the check-in area and sat in a chair next to me. We remained silent for a couple of minutes before I flat-out asked him, "Are you mad?"

He sighed resignedly, as if he had been afraid I would ask that. He seemed to be trying to formulate just the right answer. Finally, though, he said something.

"No. Not at you, at least."

"Then who?" I demanded. I was pretty sure I already knew the answer, though.

Michael opened his mouth, then apparently thought better and closed it. He tried to open it again, but once again the nurse stopped the awkward situation by telling me that it was my turn. I noted that she hadn't announced my name where everyone else could hear it, and decided that Michael must have had something to do with that.

At first, the exams they did on me weren't too bad. I just wish they could have gone easy on the blood-drawing. The nurse said they had to test the levels of a bunch of different hormones, but I failed to see why they couldn't just prick my finger like in a blood-sugar test. I also had to provide a urine sample, which was embarrassing, but at least they let me do that by myself. The rest of the stuff was weighing and taking blood pressure and all the things that are common in regular checkups.

I was all ready to get out of this place, but then the nurse led me to _another_ room. She handed me one of those crappy hospital gowns and left. This room looked mostly like a normal doctor's exam room...if it weren't for the menacing-looking table with the stirrups, that is!

No, I did not like the look of this at all. I sort of wished Michael were here, just so I would have someone to distract me. But then again, I wasn't sure I wanted him to see me wearing that gown.

I changed quickly, muttering angry curses at modern medicine while trying not to look at the table. I then waited what seemed like an additional twenty hours before the door opened.

"Why hello again, Miss Garam!" said an all-too familiar voice.

It was _that_ doctor. The same one who tortured me with his sickeningly cheerful demeanor while I was recovering from my previous ailment! For once, I would have welcomed one of the fainting fits that had become routine recently, but it didn't happen. All I could do was watch sullenly as he put on his rubber gloves.

Do I want to give all the details of what happened next? I don't think so. I also don't think you want to _hear_ all the details. So suffice to say that I just kept my eyes closed and pretended that it was Amon wielding that thing that looked like a giant, mutated pair of tweezers.

And as if that weren't enough, he had to ask me all sorts of weird questions that I didn't know all of the answers to...always in that same patronizing tone. At least he gave me a prescription for some medicine that he said would help with the sickness. He also told me that I wasn't drinking enough fluids. Well, DUH.

THEN I went to yet another room to get a sonogram done. Michael was able to be in the room this time. He even did a passing job of acting like it was his own baby.

Now _this_ I was interested in. Sadly, I didn't get to see much of anything. I'd heard stories of how exciting it was to see features of the baby and hear its heartbeat, but the doctor said that it was too early to do most of those things. Still, I was able to see something that the doctor called a "gestational sac" if I looked very carefully.

Mostly, I felt a bit disappointed at myself. This was supposed to be a moment where I was super-excited and thrilled about the life within me and all that, but I felt almost nothing. It was just difficult for me to form an emotional attachment with what looked like just a small, roundish blob. I hoped this didn't mean I'd be a bad mother.

As it turns out, things would get even _more_ complicated in a few short minutes.

Dr. Smug-Face was almost done with the exam when something on the screen caught his eye. His brow furrowed, and he moved the sensor thing over to the side a bit. Before I had time to really think about what might be going on, his face brightened.

"Congratulations!" he said in his most cheerful voice yet.

"What is it?" I asked warily.

"You two are the proud parents of twins!"

* * *

On the ride home, I tried to recall everything I could about twins.

There were two types, I knew that: identical and fraternal. I hoped that they wouldn't be identical so I'd be able to tell them apart. I thought that I'd also heard that some pairs of twins develop their own secret language.

Of course, now there were about ten billion more things that could go wrong. They could be conjointed or whatever it's called. Or one could hog all the nutrients. Or they could get all tangled up in each other's cords.

I decided to just pretend that I was sure everything was perfectly normal. It helped me hold onto some vestiges of sanity, after all.

For the next few days, I tried to keep myself busy. Michael left me more or less alone, except at mealtimes. And those were enjoyable occasions now, since I had the anti-nausea medication.

Mostly, though, I was focused on finding Amon. Right off the bat, I found one major thing that went my way. That Academy's private computer data files were pathetically easy to hack into. Really, it only took me a couple of hours, and I'm not even very skilled with computers! Why did they _ever_ think it was safe to send Amon there?

And that was far from the most unsafe thing at that island. From what I gathered from my hacking, the school was already under investigation for a whole series of criminals that had been let onto the island. There was one guy just a few months back who had even tried to blow up the whole world with a laser! The board of directors, evidently, had done nothing about this other than issue some vague warnings. The e-mails I snooped through seemed to strongly imply that these wonderful teachers were going to get the pants sued off of them in a very short while.

This was all just side stuff, though. The important thing, of course, was Amon. I found plenty of information about his whereabouts as well. Maybe more than I wanted to know, even.

This...thing...that Amon had been stalking had sucked about ninety percent of the island's population into an alternate dimension. Amon had told me about these dimensions once, one long winter night when we found it difficult to sleep. I thought that he had been making this stuff up, or at least embellishing the truth. It made my head spin to just think about whole other parallel universes inhabited by monster spirits. Sometimes, Amon had said, residents of these worlds had even warped through holes in the space-time fabric to interact with us! I really wished that said monsters would just keep to themselves, and leave Amon alone.

People had known about these dimensions for longer than I had thought. As far back as ancient Rome, they were writing on the subject. Julius Caesar himself had found something important, but the ship containing the information had been wrecked somewhere in the Mediterranean. The Academy people were trying to retrieve this information to bring the students and teachers back. Some of them thought that some of the valuables had never even been transported on the doomed ship. As the days went on, the talk in the e-mails tilted more towards finding the specific island with all this hidden treasure.

At first, I considered just letting the Academy officials handle this the rest of the way. It seemed like they now had a good plan to get everyone home in one piece. But then I started to wonder...what if Amon would be better off over there than here?

Ironically, it was Michael's actions that started this line of thought. I had discovered the reason he didn't have as much spare money as my family. Apparently, he liked to give his millions away to charity foundations! I was no stranger to philanthropy, but I'd never seen anyone as enthusiastic about the whole idea as Michael was.

He was so selfless...and I knew that would be his downfall. As long as he didn't keep this money for himself, he could never advance to be the influential man that my father was. And one night when I was lying awake in bed, my mind started drawing parallels between Michael and Amon.

How could I have been so greedy? Amon cared too much about Sid to get anywhere in life. His first priority was always Sid's happiness, not his own success. I knew that Amon was destined to be a King, and there was no way he could do that in the present circumstances. As much as I hated the idea, as heartbroken as it made me, I would have to let Amon go.

But then...what would I do? Would I be able to make my way in life as a single mother, cast out by my family? Or would I have to marry Michael to save my own skin? He had said that he would take care of me for as long as I needed it. I knew now that he was sincere, but I also knew that I wouldn't be happy with him. It was either Amon, or nobody.

Of course, I wished nothing but the best for Michael. I hoped that he would find a wife who made him happy. He would be a great husband...for any woman except me, that is.

I couldn't leave Michael just yet, though. First, I had to stop Amon from returning to this world. And I would need Michael's help for that.

* * *

Michael wasn't too thrilled about my latest plan, which I announced on the fifth morning of my stay.

"Now Ekou," he attempted to cajole, "I do want to help you, but this may be going a bit too far. I don't want to do anything that would get you in trouble with the law, and I don't think you should be risking your health, either. Let the authorities take care of this, please? For your own good?"

But I would have none of it. Finally, he gave in.

"All right, then, if this is the only thing that you think will work. I'll fly you to that island later today. But you absolutely _must_ call me if you feel that you are in any danger. I still don't like the idea of this at all."

I agreed, but I knew full well that I'd have to be on my own for this. Michael would mess up all my plans if he tried to help me. I felt very ungrateful thinking that, but it was the truth.

The flight over didn't take too long. It was an incredibly tiny place off the coast of Egypt. In fact, if I hadn't been sure of the coordinates, it might have escaped our notice.

Michael shouted at me to be careful for about the millionth time as I left his helicopter. He wouldn't even let me leave without a GPS tracker, emergency flares, and a cell phone.

I wasn't sure just what this "treasure" would look like. All I knew was that it was a tablet buried inside an old ruin. Well, the ruin was easy to find...it was a giant Roman coliseum right in the middle of the island! But where should I start digging? After thinking for a while, I decided to just start hacking in random places.

My first attempts turned up nothing. I got covered with dirt and rock dust, my arms ached from swinging the pickaxe and moving the equipment, and I was starting to feel queasy even with the medication. I thought momentarily about just giving up and letting them bring Amon back, but I mentally slapped myself at this thought. I had to focus, or I would never get the job done!

Finally, when it seemed like I had littered half the building with gouge marks, I thought I found something. It looked like the bottom huge drawing of some type of dragon. That had to be it...how many huge stone tablets of dragons could one place hold, after all?

It looked like it was too high up for me to reach by myself, so I set up a ladder to reach the rest of the picture.

After several hours, as I was finally making some headway in my work, I heard a helicopter approaching the island. If this was Michael blowing my cover, I thought, I was going to be seriously pissed.

But no, this wasn't Michael's helicopter. This was a whole swarm of them landing! And...OHSHIT those were the guys I had tried to "interrogate" last week! It looked like they had even more soldiers with them this time. I had to find a place to hide, quickly! I jumped off the ladder and ran behind the nearest wall.

I was still clinging onto hope that they wouldn't be able to find my excavation site. But the sensible part of me knew that my plan was ruined. All I could hope for was that they wouldn't find me. If they did...I would have to resort to extreme measures. I had a little surprise in store for them if they tried any funny stuff.

That old fat guy was jabbering away in Japanese. I couldn't understand all of what he was saying, but it seemed like that he was surprised that the tablet was already half dug-up.

And maybe they would have just gone about their business so I could charge them while they were busy. But then the old fat guy's long-haired friend smelled a rat, and stepped closer to where I was. He was looking right at me! I knew then that my gig was up.

"We were wondering where you were! We know that you know about the tablet!" said the long-haired guy in a mocking voice.

Well, there was no use pretending that I was invisible anymore. I slowly stepped out where everyone could see me...but I was holding my surprise behind my back.

Somehow, they seemed to be under the delusion that _I_ was the person who had sent Amon to the school! Now _that_ made me want to kick all those guys in the groin. To think that I'd make Amon go to a place like that!

I retaliated that they must have spies too, so there! Yeah, I knew I sounded like I was Sid's age, but what more could I say at that point? At any rate, they tried to brush it off, making it sound like that _their_ spies were okay, but _my_ spying wasn't. Hypocrites.

Then Long-Haired Guy said that it was high time to start excavating. There was no way I could let that happen. If they took the tablet away, then they'd bring Amon back, and he'd never get to become King!

I couldn't wait any longer. Now was the time for the surprise. I had wired the tablet just in case this happened. I'd just press one button, and it would all explode in their faces! HA!

Of course, the soldiers acted like I was holding a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Long-Haired Guy told them to calm down.

Old Fat Guy told me not to be stupid. I didn't even try to reply to that.

I could have pressed the button right then and ended this whole mess...but I didn't. My finger was right there, yet I faltered. What if the blast was stronger than I intended, and I hurt someone? I really didn't want to kill unless my own life was in danger. Worse yet...what if I hurt myself? Worst of all, what if I hurt my children-to-be?

I couldn't let _them_ know I was considering all that, of course. If they thought I had an ounce of empathy, they'd pounce all over me. So I once again informed them that destruction of the tablet was imminent.

And then, I committed the fatal flaw. I let them distract me. Long-Haired Guy brought up the subject of Amon, and I couldn't keep my idiot mouth shut. I ended up blabbing some of our deepest secrets. Well, except for our whole relationship thing. I don't know what would have happened if I had let that slip.

By the time I caught my mistake, it was too late. Those soldiers rushed at me before I could detonate the bomb. For an instant, I was afraid that they would gang-rape me while Old Fat Guy and Long-Haired Guy looked on. But all they did was pin me down. At least I fell on my side when they tackled me.

This time, they said, they weren't going to let me escape. They made me stand back up, and marched me to the helicopters...only to run into Michael.

* * *

I have no idea what tipped him off, but something did. And now he looked positively shocked at the way the soldiers were handling me. I hoped that he wouldn't pull that "that's no way to treat a lady" crap. Because I wasn't a lady at all, and he knew that.

Thankfully, he didn't do that. He seemed to compose himself, then walked over to the soldiers.

"Who is the leader of all this?" He asked. One of the soldiers pointed to Long-Haired Guy. Now that was strange...all this time I had thought that Old Fat Guy had been the boss! Apparently, Michael knew or had heard of this man, because he immediately started addressing him as "Pegasus Crawford". Which was a stupid name in my opinion, but it sure beat the hell out of "Long-Haired Guy".

Michael started whispering to this Pegasus Crawford. I caught phrases such as "mentally disturbed", and "I'll take care of all this". When they were done talking, Pegasus Crawford motioned at the soldiers to let me go.

"Well, this is against my better judgment, but Mr. Rabin here says he'll keep a close eye on you." he said in English. I spat at his feet to show him my undying gratitude.

I didn't complain about the whole "mentally disturbed" part. I _was_ mentally disturbed, and I knew it fully well. I just hadn't been aware that Michael was that astute.

* * *

I had failed. Now that those people had the tablet, they would bring Amon back, and nothing would change. I'd have to take it upon myself to make sure that Amon became King. And to do that, I'd have to be waiting for him at the Academy.

Michael was very unhappy about me setting off yet again, but I convinced him that I wouldn't try to blow anything up this time. Good thing he was such a wimp, since any reasonable person would have put their foot down. As soon as we got back to his house, I packed my bags with what few possessions I had.

As Michael gave me money to buy the airplane and boat tickets, he said, "Just be careful, okay?"

I could find no response. All I could do was say good bye and walk to where the taxi was waiting outside the front gates, and hope that this time I would finally be able to help Amon on the proper path.


	7. The Last Chapter

A/N: And here it is! The last chapter! I sure felt bad about what I had to do to Ekou, though. :(

As far as I can tell, I'm done with this story. However, I do have some "continuation" drawings on Deviant Art. I didn't put any of that in here, though, because I decided it would mess up the ending. I'm also sorry if the whole hearing voices thing seems too forced, but I promised it would be a plot point, so help me, it is a plot point!

Recommended reading for this chapter: "Motive" and "Cute Fluffy Dog of Darkness"

Soundtrack: "My Happy Ending" by Avril Lavigne. I would strongly suggest seeing the video on Youtube, since there was something about Avril's eyes in that video that reminded me of Ekou.

* * *

All right, I admit it, I lied. About not causing any trouble, that is. My submarine was still missing when I got back to the island, so I sort of had to borrow one.

To be honest, it wasn't even a very good submarine. It was all old and clunky, and there was only room for me and a couple of my soldiers who had stayed on the island. But at least it served its purpose well enough. I spent the rest of that day and all of the next day just keeping the craft offshore and waiting for any signs of the missing people. Since I couldn't very well see anyone so far away, I had to listen nonstop to the radio signals coming from the island. I kept my headset on so long, I was starting to wonder if it would become fused with my scalp.

So there I remained, just zoning out and listening to what was mostly static. I was standing on top of the submarine, because the sea air was less likely to make me feel sick. Yes, I knew that this was not a very safe thing to do, but how could I find Amon if the smell of the interior distracted me?

And then...people suddenly started talking all at once. We found them, they said. They were all back safe and in one piece. I was so relieved, I wanted to dance around on the hull, but decided it would be more prudent not to.

Now we just had to go back, get Amon, and everything would be fine. Or so I thought. As soon as we started moving, the clarifications started to circulate on the radio. Apparently, _not_ everyone had been brought back after all. There were two people missing, and one of them was Amon.

I considered just giving up right there and then. Amon was by himself, right? That had been my goal. Now he could discover his own power without me and my family to weigh him down.

We headed back to the island so we could return the submarine, but a new development occurred as it started to get dark. The people were buzzing about the possibility that there was still a portal to the other dimension located on the island. No one was sure whether this was true, but it got me thinking.

I couldn't just leave Amon all by himself without saying goodbye, I decided. No, I had to talk to him one last time, to make sure everything was going okay. Plus, I felt that he had a right to know that he was going to be a father twice over. What he did about it would be his decision, though. Maybe he'd want to get married to me, or perhaps he'd find another woman who was prettier, or maybe he wouldn't want any women with him at all. It wasn't up to me to interfere with that. But now I had to just catch a glimpse of him once more, even if it killed me.

* * *

I returned the "borrowed" property to the place I had found it. I tied it up the same way and everything. Maybe they wouldn't even notice that I had taken it.

Not much of interest happened in the next couple of hours. I was trying to find the location of this portal, but it was difficult for me to find my way through a dense jungle in the dead of night. I almost tripped over tree roots twice. Fortunately, I regained my balance both times. I also got smacked in the face by small branches more times than I could count.

Eventually, however, I stumbled upon a clearing. As I pulled the last of the leaves out of my hair, I saw it. It was a big shiny light, just like the other time. This had to be it...how many huge portals sucking in everything in their path could there be on this island? I had a fleeting suspicion that someone was watching me, but at this point I couldn't focus on anything other than getting to Amon.

So I took a deep breath, and stepped into the light. Only after it pulled me in did I realize that this might not even lead to the same dimension where Amon was. Well, it was too late for me to do anything about that now...

And then, for a while, I was falling through a whole lot of nothingness. I'm trying to find a better way to describe it, but that's really all it was.

I must have blacked out at one point. One second, I was being sucked through the void, and the next I was on my hands and knees on solid land. The first thing I thought was that maybe the portal hadn't worked. The dirt here felt just like the dirt on Earth. But really, I didn't know what I was expecting for there to be, other than dirt.

I mentally slapped myself. Here I was, on the most important mission of my life, and I was musing over the properties of _soil._ So I got to my feet carefully, trying not to think about how anyone passing by me while I was knocked out would have seen my underwear.

I had barely walked a hundred feet before what little progress I had made was impeded.

"_Mamma mia!_ I found you!" shrieked a very annoying voice. Milliseconds later, a very strange person indeed rushed up to me, blocking my path. When I tried to move to the side, he just moved the same way.

"Can you please get out of my way already? I sort of have things to do!" I said indignantly. If this was what the residents of this dimension were like, I had an excruciating journey ahead of me.

The man (well, he was a man as far as I could tell) shook his head vehemently.

"But it's my assignment to make sure you're safe! Please, I'm begging you, let me go with you! My job is already on the line, and there's no way I'll get off the hook if I mess this up!"

He gave me what would become a very familiar tearful look, and I had no choice but to grudgingly let him go with me. From what he was saying, he was just supposed to keep me out of trouble, not turn me in to the authorities...yet. Besides, he was by himself and had less muscle than me. If he tried to pull any funny stuff, I could take him out fairly easily.

As it turned out, the man was not a resident of this dimension at all...he was a teacher from the Academy who had also gotten pulled in by the portal. He said his name was Chronos di Medici, and claimed that he belonged to the self-same Medici family that was in power five centuries ago. However, I seriously doubted that last statement.

He had many other things to say, too. As soon as I thought he was done talking, he would start all over again on yet another inane topic. I tried to be polite, but I couldn't help but to tune him out after the first few minutes of prattle. For the rest of the day, I tried to keep a brisk pace, while Chronos lagged a few steps behind, debating with himself over the finer points of Audrey Hepburn movies. By the time we stopped to make camp, I was sorely regretting that I had not brought earplugs. Although, when I opened my briefcase, I saw that earplugs were the least of my worries.

I had not expected to be more than a couple of days in finding Amon, so I had unfortunately packed accordingly. I had no spare clothes other than one T-shirt, socks, and some undergarments. I had two half-liter bottles of water, and my food was even more sparse.

I still had most of my bottle of medicine, but I shuddered to think of what might happen when _that_ ran out.

Well, now that I had gotten myself into this, there was no way out, I thought. I was being kept awake by Chronos's snoring, so I had plenty of time to mull over my situation. I decided to just make the best of what I had, hope that Chronos didn't mess things up too badly, and find Amon. Amon would know how to get me back. And even if he didn't...well, what was so great about my old life anyway? If I was forced to stay here, no one would expect anything from me. I could start things anew.

The only bad thing was, my family and Michael would never know what had happened to me. It occurred to me that Michael was the last person I had been seen with in Israel. What if they decided to pin the blame for my disappearance on him? That would definitely be unfortunate, but it was really no use worrying about things I couldn't control. I didn't get this far by sitting on my behind and giving up, had I?

With that thought, I finally started to nod off, but not before I thought I heard a soft voice whispering at me.

* * *

Many days passed after that. Each was the same as the last, and I began to lose track of the date. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even sure if the dates were the same here. The weather sure was more unpredictable than what I was used to on Earth. One day it would be so warm that I'd be sweating, and the next there would be frost on the ground.

Chronos and I passed our time by walking all day, doing odd jobs in exchange for food, and stopping at every village we could to ask about Amon. None of the villagers had ever seen him, so I grew steadily more disheartened as time went by.

My companion tried his best to keep my spirits up. Chronos was really a nice person once I got to know him. He wasn't always completely "with it", but neither was I, so we were in this together. Who was I to look down upon him for sobbing over messed-up nails when I did my fair share of complaining?

My own fingernails got very dirty and chipped, and my hands grew callused from all the work. I learned how to haggle at the marketplace, and to make sure that the vendors didn't cheat me out of any goods. Both Chronos and I walked around until we thought we couldn't stand it any more, only to repeat the whole process the very next day. Even when I did run out of medicine, I was just too tired to concentrate on the nausea.

At times, I felt like a shell of my former self. Instead of taking charge of the situation like I'd learned to do before, I just let things happen. I was too ill and tired to do more than stand back and go with what others said. I was regressing into Proper Lady Mode: shy, obedient, eyes downcast.

I've heard it said that there's nothing more beautiful than a glowingly pregnant woman, but someone must have forgotten to turn on the glow in my case. All I felt was swollen and disgusting. I had varicose veins popping out in places where I hadn't even known that veins were there in the first place. I was gaining weight, but it all seemed to be going to my hips. True, I was starting to get a bit of a bump, but it was difficult to notice when my huge fat ass was hogging all the attention. And all of this was probably being made even worse by the fact that it was twins.

Keep in mind that this was happening when I was barely three months gone. I shuddered to think of what the last trimester might be like. Why couldn't this be more like those celebrities who just had the tummy bump and looked slender pretty much everywhere else on their bodies?

Sometimes, when I was trying to find a comfortable position for sleeping, I thought I'd hear my babies talking to me. Most of it was whispering that I couldn't make out, but other times they said, "Hi, Mommy", or "I love you". I know it sounds stupid, but it was like the voices were the only ones who understood. I tried to tell myself that this was all in my head, but I was _so_ desperate for companionship that sometimes I almost believed they were real. This time, though, there were no more tears where I lay my head. I was long past that now.

One day, Chronos and I were looking for someplace to set up camp when it started raining. This was not a nice warm summer-y rain, or the kind of drizzle that one can walk through and mostly ignore. No, this rain came in huge, cold droplets. In a matter of minutes, I was so soaked that it seemed like I would never be dry again.

There were no villages in the area, so asking for shelter was out of the question. All we could do was hope to find a tree to huddle under. But this landscape was very rocky, and the only plants were sparse grasses and flowers.

I tried very hard to tolerate this cold and wet, but soon I was shivering uncontrollably. Chronos offered me his coat, but I just couldn't take it from him. I knew he was supposed to be the one looking after me, but in reality it always seemed to be the other way around.

Just when I was so cold that I was sure my lips were blue, I spotted something odd in one of the cliffs.

"Hey Chronos! There's a cave!" I shouted excitedly.

He clasped his hands together and said to no one in particular, "Thank the heavens, na no ne!" Which I thought was a bit ironic, since the heavens were currently punishing us with this rain. But whatever. The important part was, we had found shelter.

Closer inspection revealed that the front of the cave actually had a roughly-made door built into it! What was more, there was light showing from under the door. That meant there were people living there, which meant fire and even food! We didn't even stop to consider what the residents might think about some soaking-wet strangers showing up at their house. We just reacted with sheer instinct and pounded on the door.

Immediately, we heard a series of very loud barks and growls.

"Shut up, Spot!" yelled a voice. Then, "Can you get the door? My hands are full right now."

Another voice said something unintelligible. Then the door swung open, and a boy about my age was struggling to hold the door open with one hand while holding back the biggest dog I'd ever seen with the other hand.

Chronos's reaction was unexpected, to say the least. He blurted out a surprised, "Misawa? Is that you?" at about the same time the guy holding open the door said, "Chronos-sensei? What are you doing here?"

Okay, hold on a minute. They knew each other? Since I've never been a particularly quick thinker, I was still trying to puzzle this out when another person walked up to the door.

"Misawacchi, you idiot, don't just keep them waiting out there in the rain! Where are your manners?"

Misawacchi or whatever the hell his name was, hesitated and said, "Um...I'm not sure we have enough..."

"You silly, of course we have enough room! Come on in, you two. My husband will get you comfortable, and I'll be with you just as soon as I'm done with Anna."

It was only when I got in the house that I noticed that the person who had invited us in had been nursing a large baby the whole time she had been talking to us! I was a bit shocked, since until she had said the word "husband" I thought she was another guy. What was more, she didn't even seem bothered by her lack of modesty.

"There! That's more like it!" she said matter-of-factly as soon as the baby was fed and she'd rearranged her clothing. She walked over to where Chronos and I were wrapped in blankets in front of the fire.

"Well, this storm isn't going to pass for a while, so allow me to introduce the members of this household. My name is Taniya, but you can call me any old name you want. I don't mind. And this is Anna. She's ten months old. Anna, can you say hi to these nice people?"

Anna covered her face with her hands in shyness.

"Don't worry," continued Taniya, "I'm sure she's just a bit overwhelmed. Anyway, that handsome young man over there is Misawa..."

Misawa blushed.

"Oh come on, Misawacchi, you don't have to be embarrassed. Am I the only one in this whole house who likes company? Oh yeah, and that's Spot. Normally he stays outside, but of course we had to let him in with this weather."

Spot lifted his head warily from where he'd been tied up in the corner. I wasn't sure why he was called "Spot", since his fur was all one color.

Even after Taniya was done introducing everyone, she still had plenty to say. Evidently, she liked talking just as much as Chronos did.

"But enough about all that. What brings you here? I think I remember seeing you at the Academy once"-here she gestured at Chronos-"But who is this lovely lady who's your companion?"

I wasn't quite sure why she said that. I wasn't lovely, and everyone in the room could see that. Inexplicably, I felt like hiding my face in much the same way that baby Anna had done. This was odd because I normally wasn't shy about my appearance. But before I had a chance to look away, Chronos introduced me with his usual flair and Italian-isms.

"Well, hello then, Ekou!" Taniya beamed, "If you need anything just ask me, okay? But for now, it looks like you need some rest. I'll be back to check up on you in a bit."

If she did come back, I didn't notice, for I was indeed asleep almost immediately.

As I drifted back into wakefulness some time later, I smelled food. My first thought was that I'd fallen asleep on the job, and the villagers would be pissed at me. But then I remembered. It was rainy. Chronos and I were taking shelter with a family of cave-dwellers. And everybody seemed to know each other except for me.

For the first time, I was able to truly notice my surroundings. When we first got here, my mind felt so fuzzy and tired that I had barely even been able to focus on Taniya's introduction.

This place was rather large for a cave, and it looked like it had several "rooms". Like most caves, it was rather chilly, but the fireplace helped keep it at a tolerable temperature. There was a pot of something hanging over said fire, which was what was making the good smell.

After wrapping myself in the blanket to both keep warm and hide my condition, I inched away from my sleeping spot. The dog, who was sprawled out on the floor, looked up at me and started growling. I froze in my tracks, since that dog looked fierce enough to rip out my throat without even trying. But for some reason, it sniffed the air, let out a little sigh, and lay back down. Well, I wasn't sure what that was all about, but I decided to just be grateful.

The noise caught Taniya's attention, who had been sitting in the corner of the room where I couldn't see her. As she noticed me, she stood up and walked over. I idly wondered just how tall she was. Amon was six feet, and Taniya looked like she might be even more than that.

"Well, look who finally decided to wake up!" she said in that husky, booming voice of hers. I wondered if I should be offended, but decided that Taniya was probably the type of person who said those things just as a joke.

Taniya went on to say that I had been out cold for six hours, and dinner was now just about ready. At first I was starving, but then I saw that the meal was a stew that consisted solely of some sort of fatty meat. Normally this wouldn't have posed a problem, but greasy foods were one of the many things that was hard for me to keep down due to my nausea problems. But I had only eaten a light breakfast of bread and fruit, so I knew I had to at least try to eat. In the end, I just settled on some nibbling while listening to the others talk.

I had thought that all of these people were native residents of this dimension, but only the baby had actually born here. Taniya had been transported here while she was pregnant, she said, and Misawa had joined her through the same portal that Chronos and I took. Misawa had been a student at the Academy, and Chronos had been a teacher. They weren't exactly clear on how Taniya fit into all this, or even if Misawa was actually Anna's biological father (although there was quite a physical resemblance between the two, so I assumed that he was the father). When I finally worked up the courage to ask how Misawa and Taniya had met, Misawa abruptly changed the subject. Despite all this, they seemed like a happy couple.

It was certainly a weird relationship those two had, I mused. I'd never known a woman to be so dominating. It was unusual to me, since Amon liked being in control. However, it seemed to work for them. Sure, Taniya tended to tease him a lot, but Misawa appeared to take it all in stride.

* * *

After dinner, Taniya asked Misawa to wash the dishes. This was a rather time-consuming task, given that there were no automatic dishwashers in this dimension, so Chronos volunteered to help. When they were busy, Taniya turned to me.

"You still look tired," she stated. I said nothing. Taniya continued to cajole as she wiped off Anna's face and hands.

"Look, Ekou, it's no use trying to hide all of your feelings. I'm twenty-six this spring, I've seen a lot of this world, and I know when something's going wrong for somebody. Why don't you just talk to me and see if I can help you any?"

I had to admit, the idea sounded tempting. The idea of having someone who would listen to me had been something foreign to me all my life. I decided to at least turn my head so I was looking directly at her. Taniya smiled.

"There, see? That wasn't so hard!" she said in a much softer, gentler voice. I knew this was how she probably talked to her baby, but somehow I wasn't insulted. It seemed...comforting. I wondered if my parents had ever talked to _me_ like that.

"Now come on," Taniya was saying, "You look like you could use some relaxation time. We have an underground hot spring right in this cave. Oh, now don't look away again like that. It'll be fun! Anna can come too, and we can have a girls-only night!"

Well, there was no way Taniya was going to let me say no. There were worse things I could do with my time, I supposed.

The hot spring was rather shallow, and more warm than actually hot. This was probably good, since I wasn't sure how safe hot water was for me. Taniya said that she bathed Anna here all the time, so I guess if it was safe for her baby it would be okay for _my_ babies as well.

I watched enviously as Taniya stripped without hesitation. She didn't even look like she'd ever been pregnant! She might have just been really lucky, or maybe she had worked hard to get her body back the way it was. Either way, I was embarrassed to follow her lead.

"Get in the water, Ekou! What, you think I've never seen another woman's boobs before? Nothing's going to scare me!" laughed Taniya as she eased into the water with Anna in her arms.

I started doing as she said, but with my back turned to her. My jacket and undershirt came off fine, but I had trouble with my skirt. It had been a while since I had undressed, and I hadn't realized how tight the skirt had become. I tried everything to get it off...sucking in my breath, wiggling my hips around, but nothing worked. I was quite dismayed when I finally heard a seam rip. Now what was I going to wear?

I whipped my head around, but Taniya had no visible reaction. So I peeled down the remains of the skirt, finished undressing, and snuck into the water while Taniya was distracted with washing Anna. I hid as much of my body as I could underwater and rested my chin on my knees. I had to admit, Taniya was right about this feeling relaxing.

When Anna had been thoroughly sponged down, Taniya shifted her to the other arm and turned towards me. I was completely unprepared for what she blurted out next.

"So when's it due?" she asked while flashing a bright smile.

I was shocked. Here I'd thought I'd done a great job of hiding this! All the time I'd been in this dimension, I'd never brought up the topic with anyone. I assumed that Chronos had figured it out at some point, but he had never mentioned anything out loud.

After some time, I finally stammered out, "J...July."

"Really? I would have guessed earlier."

"It's twins."

"Ah, I see. You're going to have a lot of weight to carry around, aren't you? I can sympathize with that. Not because I have experience with twins, but Anna was a big baby. I'd say she was easily ten pounds at birth. Let me tell you, I had a hell of a time getting her to come out!"

She laughed again. All I could say was, "Oh."

Then, since I was curious, I asked her how she'd figured it out. Just being with her seemed to be giving some of my boldness back.

Taniya informed me that Spot the dog was actually a Duel Spirit, and all Duel Spirits followed a certain code. This code stated that if any spirit ever hurt a small child, nursing mother, or pregnant woman, it was the most unforgivable crime that could ever be committed. That was why Spot had stopped acting threatening towards me earlier...he had been forced to stop when he caught my scent. As far as I could tell, other kinds of human were fair game for killing, but I did not ask about this.

After this was said, there was some awkward silence. I wanted to confide in her the fear that had grown as my body did, but I wasn't sure I could work up the courage. Well, she had said that nothing would scare her, so it was at least worth a try.

"I..." I began. Taniya leaned toward me.

"Go on, I'm listening," she urged.

Looking down at my knees, I finally confessed my secret...that I wasn't sure I could be a mother, and that I thought it was a mistake to keep the pregnancy going in the first place.

Taniya pondered this for a long time. I wanted to run away, but I decided against it. I was better than that, and I knew it. Finally, she started to reply slowly and thoughtfully.

"Well yes, I think I can understand that. Pretty much every woman feels that way to some extent, at some point in time. I guess I got off easy, since Anna has never been a difficult baby to care for. But as far as I see, you only have to do one thing to be a good mother. Now listen carefully, because this is very important. Look into my eyes, please."

I did as she said. She certainly had an intimidating gaze, but I resolved not to let that get to me.

"All right, good. The secret is this: you must be willing to give your life for your children. If anyone ever does them any harm, you must defend them without giving a second thought to your own well-being. If anyone ever dared lay a hand on Anna, believe me, I would not hesitate before tearing them limb from limb. If you do not have this instinct...well, then it doesn't matter how kind and caring you are; you will not be a good parent. Trust me, I know exactly what I'm talking about."

Taniya's eyes narrowed to slits as she said this, her voice lowered to a growl, and I could have sworn that even her teeth got sharper. It was almost like she had put herself into a trance. She meant every word of this, I realized. Had she maybe been raised by a parent who did not fit this criterion? I wasn't sure.

"Do you understand me?" she whispered. I nodded.

"Good, then," she replied. Then, as if nothing had happened, she smiled again.

"Well, look at you, Anna! Your skin is all wrinkly from the water! I think it's just about time for all of us to get out of this bath, what do you think, Ekou?"

As soon as we were all dried off, Taniya tsked over my torn skirt.

"Well, it won't do to wear that, now will it? I could fix it if you want, but it would only be a matter of time before it rips again. I think you need something a bit more roomy. I think I have an old shirt around from when I was expecting Anna. If I alter it a bit, I think it will do just fine as a dress for you."

I tried to thank her, but she waved my words off.

"No problem. I had plenty of practice making all of Anna's clothes from scratch, so this will be easy. I'll have it ready for you tomorrow morning."

In the meantime, she gave me one of her old cloaks to wrap around my hips like a long skirt.

As soon as I was finally decent, we walked out to the main room. Misawa was curious about what exactly we had been doing in there, but Taniya told him not to worry that big brain of his about it.

As I settled myself back into my blanket, Anna crawled up to me. She studied me with such an intent frown on her chubby face that I couldn't help but giggle. I let her sit on my lap, and did some studying of my own.

Anna wasn't an attractive baby in the classic, blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked sense. She felt heavy and somewhat muscular, and shared Taniya's dark complexion. Her hair and eyes, though, were like Misawa's except a couple of shades darker.

I wondered what my babies would look like after the initial squally red-skinned stage. I was still hoping that they'd both look like Amon, because he was the better-looking one of us. Also, I was still holding out hope that at least one of the babies would be a boy, since I wasn't sure I could do all the "girly" stuff.

I went to sleep pondering this, with Anna still on my lap. I was so tired, I didn't hear any voices that night.

* * *

The next morning, Chronos and I ate a quick breakfast and were on our way early. Anna hadn't even woken up yet when we left...Taniya had put the baby back in her little bed sometime during the night.

As promised, Taniya was finished altering her old "maternity" shirt. I had to admit, it looked pretty nice. There was more room for my bloated hips and lower stomach, and the sash called attention to my still-slim waistline. She even let me keep the cloak, saying she had some to spare.

Amazingly, there was no sign of yesterday's big storm. The sun was so strong, it had dried up all of the mud puddles.

We went on our merry way for several hours. I felt much better today. Whether it was all the sleeping yesterday that did it, or the bath, or even that I was hitting the energy boost of the second trimester, I wasn't sure. I tried to think about what might be different about this particular day.

Then I remembered something. If I did some math in my head, I was pretty sure that today's date was January 20th. That meant it was my nineteenth birthday! Well, I'd have never guessed this time last year that this was how I'd ever spend a birthday, I thought amusedly.

The sun was high in the sky when I felt a slight tremor in the ground. I shot a worried look at Chronos...yes, he'd felt it too. He volunteered that maybe it was a small earthquake. At first, we just tried to ignore it, but the quaking only got stronger.

After a few minutes, I happened to glimpse something out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to get a better view.

"Um...Chronos?" I asked.

"Yes, Signore Ekou?"

"I think we had better run."

He turned around and saw what I had seen...a huge herd of bulls stampeding right toward us!

"Why yes. Yes, indeed. I think that is an excellent idea," Chronos said in a perfectly calm voice. Then we were off, screaming "AHHHHHHHHH!" at the top of our lungs.

I couldn't remember the last time I had run for this long. Definitely not since I got to this dimension, and maybe not even since my training last year. Somehow, though, I found the strength to keep moving.

Chronos wasn't quite so lucky. After a few minutes, either his legs gave way or he tripped over something...I couldn't quite tell. At any rate, he fell to the ground and struggled to get up while calling me for help.

Now I had a dilemma. I didn't want to get trampled, but I couldn't just leave my friend for dead like that! My morals won out, and I was just turning around when something...happened.

I couldn't quite tell what it was, since I was so pumped up with adrenaline. But _something_ just appeared and blasted the bulls all into smithereens. Unlike me, Chronos seemed to know almost immediately what this was.

"Those are...Diamond Guy and Cyber Dragon!" he gasped. Well, okay, fine then. I had no idea what those names meant, but I had learned not to question the many weird occurrences of this locale. My hand absentmindedly drifted down to my stomach, to check that everything was still okay there.

Now Chronos was babbling on about some person named "Edo". He was blocking my view, so I couldn't quite see who he was talking to...until he tripped yet again. I guess his legs weren't quite back at full strength yet.

I wasn't sure quite what I was supposed to do, so I stood back and let Chronos do the talking...which, of course, he was happy to do.

The first thing Chronos decided to do was introduce me, so I had no choice but to be polite and walk over.

I looked at the two guys who were standing a few feet away from us. The taller one was kind of cute. Maybe it was just my overactive pregnancy hormones talking again, but if I wasn't so worried about Amon, I'd definitely be happy with this guy for the night. Alas, he barely acknowledged my existence.

The shorter one was the one Chronos was talking to. And when I say he was short, I mean it. He (the short guy...not Chronos) looked like he had the approximate height and build of Prince, and Prince was...what? Five-three or five-four? So yeah...not as hot as the other one. What was more, he really weirded me out because he wouldn't stop staring at me. But then Chronos started talking to him again, and they struck up a conversation about some guy named "Judai". I think that Chronos had a crush on this Judai, from the way he talked about him.

Then Hot Guy said we should leave, and led us back to what I guessed was a campsite. Short Guy lagged behind...I had a sneaking suspicion that he was trying to stare at my butt. That turned out not to be the case, but whatever.

We met two other teenage boys at the camp, which was located on a grassy hill under a tree. Neither of them were very interesting to me. One was unconscious and the other was even shorter than the first Short Guy. I dubbed him "Shorter Guy". Not very original, I know, but it helped me keep things organized.

And for the rest of the day, things were very boring. All everyone did was worry about Unconscious Guy, who turned out to be the famous Judai. I know I should have at least tried to worry about him because he was sick, but I seriously did not give a shit. He wasn't Amon, so therefore he wasn't important.

The other people managed to rummage up some supper from their bags, and this time I actually was hungry. But I knew I had to be careful, since I didn't want to get sick or hog all of the food.

After dinner, everyone sat around the fire and talked in low, serious voices. Once again, it wasn't about Amon, so I deemed it safe to tune out. They were all more or less ignoring me, but I thought I liked it better that way.

Then Short Guy had to go and ruin everything. I was in the middle of a stimulating internal debate entitled, "What to use for diapers if I'm still in this dimension six months from now". I had been considering the merits of leaves when Short Guy just walked up and started staring at me again. I looked at him with a warning glare, but he ignored it.

His hand went down to the general location of his pants. My first impression, of course, was "Oh _gross_, he's going to...", but before I could finish that thought, he went for his pocket instead. He took something out and...

Oh _fuck._ That total jerk _stole my necklace!_ And now he was giving it back, as if to say "Ha ha, you're too stupid to keep track of your own stuff!" Shit. If only the others weren't here, I would have beaten the snot out of this scrawny bastard. As it was, I snatched back my property angrily. I hoped that the chain would bruise his delicate little hand.

Short Guy...oh okay, _Edo_...stammered that he hadn't meant on looking, and that the lid opened by accident. Oh sure, like I believed that for one millisecond.

And then he started talking about Amon. Why did this always happen to me? I was trying to project the image of someone who could take care of herself, but that was difficult when people kept prodding at my biggest weakness. Whenever anyone mentioned Amon, I felt a nearly uncontrollable need to inform them how much more superior Amon was to anyone else. Well, it was true of course, but I wished that I was able to keep at least some things private.

I have no idea what prompted me to refer to my own brother as "Master Sid", however. Freudian slip, perhaps.

Damn it, Edo was persistent! Even after I explained all of my reasons for what I did in detail, he kept pressing me for more. He said that he didn't understand why I would be doing this if I loved Amon. As if he had any idea what real love was about!

Just when I thought he finally got it, this fog sprang up all over the place. I thought it was yet another one of this place's freak storms, but that wasn't it. Nope, we were switching worlds yet again, for some reason I wasn't aware of. The only thing I could think was that all this dimension-hopping can't be good for pregnancies. So I leaned over to protect my abdomen, just in case, while hanging onto my locket at the same time.

The new world looked more or less the same as the old one at first. No one was paying attention to me except for Chronos. Even Edo had moved on to Judai, who had chosen this time to finally wake up.

But then I noticed something. There was one big difference in this dimension. There was a cave where there definitely had not been one before.

And then...

I had to be seeing things. That's it. My brain must have finally cracked and moved from audio hallucinations to visual ones. There was no way that person could actually be Amon. It was just too convenient that we had happened to be transported right in front of him when I had been looking in vain for two whole months...

But then, if he was a hallucination, why had Judai noticed him? And Edo? And why was everyone now looking in his direction?

Oh my God, that_ was_ Amon! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He didn't look at me, but that was okay. He was busy with all of these other people who wanted to talk to him. I would just have to wait my turn patiently.

They were saying something about Amon's arm, but that didn't matter, I'm sure it could get fixed if it was injured, he had said that he chose to stay here by himself! That meant that there was already one problem taken care of. Now once Judai was done running his mouth, everything would be...

Wait a minute. Had someone said that Amon was a servant to somebody? No no no, this wasn't right at all! I started to panic. What should I do? I needed help! Amon might never be a king now! My stomach felt queasy, but before it got really bad, Amon finally looked at me.

"Ekou, come here!" he said. And he was smiling! At me! He almost never smiled at me. But wait...why was he smiling if he was still a servant? Wasn't that a bad thing? I was confused.

I tried to ask him what was going on, but he just walked toward me. He looked me over, and for the briefest amount of time I thought I saw shock register in his eyes. But the next second, he was as unreadable as ever.

I didn't know what he wanted from me. It didn't seem like he was looking for sex, since there were all these other people watching us. Maybe having people watch was one of his new kinks? I couldn't even begin to think of anything else I could do for him.

He was trying to tell me something important, I knew that. But I wasn't used to him saying more things to me than necessary. We normally communicated with our bodies, not with words. When he grabbed my arm, I wasn't sure whether to go or stay. I was used to being slapped around a bit during particularly rough sex, but this was different. Even I could figure that out.

I tried to say that I didn't understand, but Amon was impatient. He pulled so much that I tripped and fell right in the worst spot. Now the babies might be hurt, and it was all my fault for not telling Amon sooner!

"Amon, please don't," I said as gently as I could, "I'm..."

But if Amon had heard me, he gave no sign of it. Right then, Edo decided to pick a fight with him. Amon told him to get lost, and I silently agreed. Why did Edo think he could snoop into _our_ business? The nerve!

Like the mature person that he was, Amon refused to be goaded by Edo's insults. He reassured me that he'd be a king, no matter what it took. But I had to help him, he said. He could only become king if I sacrificed myself.

I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to do anything that would prevent Amon from reaching his dream. But then I remembered what Taniya had said, about putting my children's lives before my own. If I did what Amon said...that would be the ultimate betrayal of Taniya's principle.

I opened my mouth, about to explain the situation to Amon and ask if there were any possible alternative methods, when Edo barged in again. He was going on about how if Amon didn't leave me alone, then THERE WOULD BE CONSEQUENCES! I thought that Amon would just ignore this again, but instead he accepted Edo's challenge. There was nothing more I could say now. All I could do was stand with the others and watch as events unfolded that I didn't understand. I hadn't dueled in years, and though I did remember the basics, I got a headache as I tried to keep all of the spell cards and monster effects straight. But I was at least pretty sure that Amon wasn't using his normal deck.

Again, I thought offhand that this was some way to spend my birthday. I had been sure that Amon would win easily so we could continue our discussion, but this was taking so long! And what was more, Edo seemed to have backed Amon into a corner. I wasn't certain of the specifics, of course, but I could tell it was important.

And then, just when I was starting to get worried, Amon found a way out of it.

What was this? Amon was going to do the sacrifice now? And he said that it couldn't just be any old person; it had to be...

He said...

_He said he loved me_.

All those years I waited for him to say just this, and he never did...not until now.

What could I do...? How could I deny him anything? I felt faint...I couldn't think about anything other than what Amon said.

I was vaguely aware that Edo and some other people were trying to talk me out of it, but they weren't important. Nothing was important. I was nothing compared to Amon.

"_It's okay, Mommy. Do it. Do what he says."_

Why...how could I...

I just could. It was as simple as that. My life had no meaning now. Why should I stay in this body, bloated and sick and stupid, when I could be something more, something that had more use to Amon?

"_Do it..."_

Amon was waiting for me to make my move. Well, I wouldn't disappoint him. This was the only way to show how much I loved him in return.

So it was set.

A long time ago, I inquired if you knew me. Well, now I know the answer. You do not know me, nor does anyone. How could anyone understand how I could be willing to do so much for one person?

THE END

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End file.
